My first ‘Bliss’ poem just appeared in print! It, along with another poem about a nurse in a logging community, were chosen to be included in the Tenth Anniversary issue of the Saranac Review. I have lines about my little granddaughter in a number of poems, but this was the first one I wrote (last fall) just about her. It is below:
Birth of the North Wind
I wrap the baby in my old coat and take her
out under cedar to hear winter
begin. Wind is high, from the north, north-
east. It has an open-mouthed sigh just short
of a howl. It lauds absent
blossoms. She lifts her face
to it, lips parted, offering her first
word, a yes to old, old
mountains that she remembers like hunger.
Her cheeks glow with the story of
firelight. Her tiny hands wriggle out of
wool to grasp the wind’s invisible
hide full of teeth, sorrow and a
tameness only the very young
understand. Her perfect cloud of breath
trails away becoming sunset, becoming
snow, guiding the north wind
southward.