Oct.
14
2024
My poem about seeing Sputnik when I was a little girl is up now on the Cider Press Review website. This is a very vivid memory for me even after all these years. We had a close-knit neighborhood where all the moms were also my mom and the other children seemed like my brothers and sisters. But as I grew, as all of us mature beyond childhood, events in my life and the world intervened. My friend lost his life even as mankind explored the universe beyond.
1957
Later than bedtime, we stand
in the unpaved road looking up.
Neighbors not sure what to believe
as we search fixed constellations
for a single traveling light. Satellite.
Sputnik. The men of war
know the truth of bombs
masquerading as a field,
a field of moonlight. Mothers
count children in the dark
as we play hiding games
when suddenly, a red-headed girl
squeals and points toward
a slow moving star. A feeling
unfolds beyond fear and at seven
I already know I will remember
this night. How Bryan Flynn
found me and raced me back to base.
Bryan whose draft number
would be low. Who loved his old dog
and could pitch faster
than any of the other boys.
He would lose his life
while men walked on the moon.
Have you seen Star Link?
Low and slow, a satellite train.
Using my cell phone I can know
anything. I type in Bryan Flynn
and get thousands of hits. None
of them him except the power
of name. I remember
my mother rubbing her bare arms
that October, telling me how this night
would outlive us. How everything
we need to know is written in the sky.
Oct.
01
2024
My poem “Velvet” about my first memory of the feel of fabric is in the current issue of Thimble Journal. You can read it and the whole issue at http://thimblelitmag.com.
My grandmother sewed many of my clothes when I was a child. She once made me a red of red velvet. I loved that coat so much for its rich color but mostly, I think, for its blissful softness.
I still love beautiful fabric. Here is the poem:
Velvet
The earliest pleasure I remember
is velvet. My grandmother
sewed a little red coat for me.
Softness unlike plush or cotton
or even the robe my morning
mother wore.
I was too young to know age
has a number or that the coat
was something I could outgrow.
Since, I have stroked the fur of a puppy’s
ear. Smoothed warm, fine
beach sand. Thumbed
a polished stone. I have cupped
the burn of snow and run my open hand
through the sundown wind
but have never quite found the same
harmony of nerve endings.
I came closest with a lover’s skin.
And have learned that if you stroke the nap
of woven silk backwards
it ruins everything.
Fingertips erode with age, touch
roughened into a crude braille.
I find feelings now mostly in a word:
the name of the fabric
of a little red coat.
Oct.
01
2024
I am so proud to have my poem, “Custody,” in the annual print edition of Santa Fe Literary Review 2024. The theme was about journeys, inspired by Robert Frost’s poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” When I saw the announcement early this year, I thought this theme was especially inspiring. The journal is beautifully produced and includes lots of artwork to accompany the poems, stories and non-fiction pieces.
The poem the journal accepted had to do with the plight of many children, those whose parents are divorced. These kids go back and forth and this is not an easy situation. I wrote the poem from the point of view of these:
Custody
The worst parts of the divorce
were Friday and Sunday evenings,
the drive back and forth. Anger
like tires spinning on gravel.
The little sentences of guilt
trying to pry out testimonies
of neglect and betrayal
while I sat in silence clutching
the newest cheap toy
that I always said was exactly
what I wanted. About that time,
in my fifth grade reader, I encountered
the myth of Persephone. The teacher
told us it was about the seasons,
but I knew it told the story
of a car ride where I was forced
to make my way among boulders
and roots, feeling torn
between the house and an apartment.
Someone always saying goodbye
in that voice. Journey I could not
escape that I had no say in,
as if I had choked on some seed
and had no idea of the consequences.
Jul.
10
2024
“Snapdragon” has published my poem, “Cumulus,” in their online summer 2024 issue about climate change. You can read all the powerful work by going to Http://snapdragonjournal.com. I don’t write about issues of importance as often as I should. This spring I have been focusing on social concerns more seriously and have crafted several poems I am proud of including this one. I am thankful to the editors of Snapdragon for bringing the needs of our beautiful world forward for both writers and readers to take to heart.
Cumulus
When I first learned clouds move,
I was three years old. Lesson
in the terror of change. The villain
was wind who pushed and shredded,
the same ghost who chafed my skin.
Over the years I developed affection
for breezes, the way all love involves
a tinge of fear. The way I forgave
my own visible breath, leaving.
Throughout my life, the winds have risen
until now I see the atmosphere unraveling,
clouds and leaves and dust all one earth-shift.
Some say the sunsets are more brilliant
these days. I see them with the same
wariness I glimpse the false rainbow
in an oil slick, poison mistaken
for pearl. Clouds outside my window
do not hold the same rain I knew
as a child. Less river, more smoke. Vapor
I imagined into animals now their slow
erasure. Unless we envision a fresh wind.
Until we change the shape of our fear.
Jun.
13
2024
My poem, “Omens and Totems,” is in the current (Spring 2024) online issue of Slant. You can read the whole beautiful journal at: www.uca.edu/sll/slant/. This poem originated in a dream. Dreams are fertile fields for inspiration. I keep a notebook in the bathroom so if I see a powerful image or hear a word while I am sleeping, I can write it down immediately when I awake without disturbing Jim! Here is my poem:
Omens and Totems
I have this nightmare
where I am asked by the storm
within the wind to name
the birds. Each of them.
And I am shamed by my meager
attempt at sparrow and
wren. There are too many
and in my sleep crows shift
into a handful of starling
shadow. It is as if a species
became each individual feature,
none of them true. Each
beloved relationship shattered
since my heart studied
the wrong wing.
My friend makes dream catchers
from chicken feathers. And twine
and seeds the colors of rain.
At night pilgrims fly through them.
I hang one from my head board
reach for my childhood robins.
Drift into the time when I was
so new to this world
I thought I was tasked
with giving the birds their names.
May.
11
2024
The beautiful new issue of Steam Ticket, A Third Coast Review, Vol. 27, Spring 2024, includes my poems “Homeless Stones,” and “Bread Poem.” It is the literary magazine of the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse.
I wrote “Homeless Stones” this past February while involved in a poetry workshop lead by Gary Copeland Lily. Gary was a perfect leader, sensitive and full of mind-opening examples of ideal poems and poets. This is one of the most powerful writing workshops I have ever been part of. The seven other poets were extremely supportive, helpful and above of, inspiring. Several of them were focused on writing social consciousness poems. I tend to stay away from politics, but felt called to try to write about something I felt strongly about. The topic I chose was homelessness and the plight of the unhomed. Just as I was searching for an image or story to be a springboard, I heard a report on NPR about an area in Olympia/Lacey where we used to live with a different approach to preventing a homeless encampment. The tent city had appeared near a busy on/off ramp. Law enforcement regularly cleared the area out, but homeless people quickly returned. Finally the state paid thousands of dollars to place huge boulders on the acre so there would be no room for homeless people to settle there. I found the amount of money spent – with no money spent on re-homing – appalling. By describing the situation in detail various points of view, I examined it for myself and also, hopefully, opened the eyes of readers to all that is involved on both sides of the injustice.
I wrote the “Bread Poem” at a time when we were trying an extreme keto diet and all bread products were avoided. During that difficult period I came to understand how essential, tasty and comforting breads of all kinds can be. We are no longer keto. The poem is meant to be both humorous and serious. What we put into our bodies is vitally important. When I first created this piece about 3 years ago, I submitted it a few times with no success, then set it aside. By applying some the principles Gary taught us, I eliminated three lines, which tightened up the poem wonderfully. I submitted it once – again – and here it is!
May.
11
2024
My poem “Beyond Darkness” is included in Cirque #27 which just came out in May 2024. This poem is based on an experience I had walking just after sunset in Cape George where we live. At the entrance to our village is a fire station which is no long staffed regularly. It is the highest point since the village slopes down toward the sea. Darkness had fallen more quickly than I had expected and the shapes around me were dim and shadowy. Suddenly I saw a group of deer approaching. They didn’t seem aware of me and certainly didn’t seem to find that I was there. The whole scene was surreal. A fawn passed so close I could have reached out and touched her. I almost felt like we did touch in some way. The poem describes this experience. I wrote the poem to capture and preserve the moment and also to explore it and its implications for my life.
Apr.
10
2024
My poem “Magnified” has been chosen by two artists as an inspiration for their creative expressions. The poem is displayed during the month of April along with the art it inspired in Rimbert Illustrations Gallery in Bremerton and Front Street Gallery in Poulsbo.
I will be reading my poem as the artist describes their creative process on Sunday, April 14 in Bremerton and Sunday April 21 in Poulsbo.
The competition is sponsored by a group called Ars Poetica in Kitsap county. By the first of the new year, poets are invited to submit 3 poems with a small fee. Artists are then able to select pieces that they believe will help them create new artwork. The results are displayed during National Poetry Month.
I just and absolutely love this concept. More frequently poets participate in Ekphrasis when they write in response to the work of art. It is very rewarding to have the process reversed and have artists respond to the written word. I am so excited to meet the artists that my poem inspired later this month. I know that one created a painting and the other a found item collage.