Steve Brackenbury

“Stiff and stark sat the child – frozen to death, there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. ‘She wanted to warm herself,’ people said.”Hans Christian Anderson, “The Little Match Girl” Stars, falling thick as snowflakes, keep company with the cold of night. Like a candle wick, all spark and fizz, they […]

folk-life falling bright on the Blue Lake afternoon sun shine content upon the hills, the trees, the people the bales of hay soft, and meant to catch resting minds set on bodies willing to hear how we can weave words with wonder songs, strung and set upon the air, clear and concise clean, as the […]

sometimes the lines on the map are redrawn and we must dispose of latitude and longitude sometimes the ships leak and take on water and we must repair the woody damage and sometimes the sun comes up in places where compass and quadrant could never conceive of such a fiery birth so when the creatures […]

walking and talking into the wind and a cell phone alone, on this night in Santa Fe there, in the corner of buildings butted up against each other, is the bat, the small little bat, a creature seeking heat against the cold – alone folded about himself I am seeking the same from you sonar […]

such a crazy fox see him go into the corn rows see the loveliness of yellow and the silk he tears into pieces shredded into the small into the softness of a world filled with chaos and a brain full of thoughts, hot and wild fill me with this holy desire bring me to this […]

one lone brown leaf soft as lint falls to the foot of the naked elm the trees still cloaked in their colored coats shiver in the mist with impatient anticipation

summer night sweats dry to fever russet umber rustles under amber blown saffron the swirling melting butterfly air covers cold earth like a crackle quilt of ruby pleasure death

been navigating the shores of my life tied up in those big ropey knots that only true sailors know how to undo these old blinds and curtains are nothing but ruffles of wind on the waves sporting a sheen of sweat (and the shine of salty spray on my tired but satisfied face) it is […]

Suave and smooth in his suit a shining beauty, he commands the room holds court, dispenses approbation withholds affection, sure and neat While the sun is settling into still he will decide the determination of love a force in motion and that which requires great patience On the street of a soundless night he is […]

winter comes for a long time when paws are soft paws that come in touch with the cold, unforgiving ground and living in a world of unmediated expectations, is unsettling for the beast, for the hound he must come around to the fact that life is not what you make it but what it most […]