The first one fellWhen we couldn’t sleepAnd you felt called uponTo shake a limbAnd see what would happen The second one fell when I asked for timeYou caught it despite it falling fastAnd waited an eternal minuteBefore picking it apart in front of me The third one didn’t fallYou plucked it yourselfYou tried putting it […]
Poetry Writer
Poetry submissions may be sent to poetry@northcoastjournal.com. See our Writer's Guidelines for other submissions.
Dry Spell
Mind arid as an endless desertstretching into the horizon—sterile weeks,not even a scrawny, spiny cactus ideafor a parched pen to suck.Blistering sand sifts through this barren brainsearching for shadefrom any lonely palm tree,a moist poem of mud to cool these sun burned toes.Seems like months in this scorching Sahara of writer’s block,tongue bone-dry thirsts for verse.A mirage of metaphor […]
Life Goes On …
Life goes on.We move slower nowBut we are moving.Things are hardWe try to help.Our nation beckonsWe work the polls.The garden growsWe prepare for winter.We have familyAnd friendsWe support each other.We move slower nowBut we keep movingAnd life goes on. — Dottie Simons
Relativity
Matter was never Created, nor destroyed. Periodic TablesAlways prevailed, As time flew byUnencumbered. What is the difference betweenA moment, and forever? Being here now isAll that really matters. — Kirk Gothier
Prey-Go-Neesh
Thank you for bringing us back.Thank you, everyone,for all the hard work you’ve donepreparing for our returnafter so many years. Now we can see how you live.We’re watching you from above.We see what you’ve changed. We see what you haven’t.And we know what needs to be done. But don’t worry. Don’t panic.We love you still.If […]
A Stage of Wonder
Sitting on the Kellogg benchas so many have done beforewith waves and rippleseasy to see,I think those who’vepaused in this spacedid not fall intothe futile gameof worrybut danced onthe playful stageof wonder. — Keith Carmona
Brooks and I
I didn’t know him well.Though we both volunteered at KHSU.He, folk music. Me, poetry.And some might think this would be enough to bond. But it wasn’t. And it didn’t.Until I learned we both loved Italy.Especially Rome. He, Trastevere.Me, with only two short staysin hotels downtownand once in a short-term rental on the opposite side of the city.But […]
Where you sat.
How the skies finally moved…We can only hope right now.Shifting through these longing daysWhere grace is faint.Found in the work of sand and water.Where wind once came,And still visits,A story remains.Tell me now,Fingers tracing this light,Long across time soon flowingOnce again.Smooth, Still,Under a ceaseless blue morning.Tell me now. — Sam A. Flanagan
At the Elk River Spit
In the shallow waterTen egrets in dazzling whitePerform a slow-motion ballet. — Donna Wildearth
Ode to Color
in your Little Red Corvettewith the floral interior,like Crimson and Clover,you manage to catch the Green Light en route to a White Weddingat the house of worshipwith Gold on the Ceiling where sits outside a Pink Cadillacdragging Silver Bells,prepared to take the young rockerswith the Brown Eyes past Fields of Grayto the Yellow Submarine hotelfloating […]
Happy Murder
As the wind begins the crows emergeready to play tag, chortle, caw . . . make that special sound only they can make, take flight over rocky shoals into ocean misttheir numbers increase as day descends upon the dense pines that line the graveyard of our tiny coastal town Great swaths of green leafy boughs breathe and billowas corvid come […]
