Poetry

In the midst of tragedy and suffering there is the earth’s insistent beauty. A Syrian boy sits Alone on a plastic chair Covered in soot His child hand wiping his brow His eyes recognize It is his blood He solemnly transfers Across his shirt. Having been pulled For an hour from the rubble Too traumatized […]

She dropped my hand to race with other Princesses, fairies, and ghosts In the middle of the street Glow sticks flashing, illuminating Piles Of candies, tricks, and treats. Halfway across the world Kids are dropping hands tonight Caked in drywall like ghosts In the middle of the street Rockets red glare illuminating Piles Of rubble. […]

Lounging in our beach chair The sun is slowly setting, As I recall all we’ve done Together… Somewhere, Someone Remembers our past And Carries it all outwards, Holding us so tightly. We are sure to implode! Kirk Gothier

I watch a movie on Showtime – “Ghost” The characters unreel quietly and slowly. I’ve lost two husbands to the big “C”s – Cancer and Car Crash. I live alone now. I shop for groceries, quietly cook dinner. Take a shower, towel off, look into the mirror. I can’t find my face under the white […]

What shall we name this newborn war, how honor its multi-national heritage? Shall we call it “Independence,” after its father, or “Nakba,” after its mother? Maybe “World War,” after its illustrious grandparents? Or will we pluck a date off the innocent calendar, soiling forever the good name of October 7? With what patriotic, pious words […]

last week’s respects     to august warmth are paid and spent and in october’s deepening chill     boletes pop       emboldened from beneath the backyard meanwhile undrowning     in an airborne lake of fog hawthorn pomes crimson   and we with what structures we have built     might aspire to anchor the webwork of orb weavers who wait     silent in the autumn […]

The Geese It’s a wondrous thing when their migration cycles back to our fields The sky filled with song of renewed faith and hope, Or is that me? A visceral feeling A distant echoing sound that draws me back to self Elevating the beauty that surrounds us to familiar memories The rains come The pastures […]

When nothing becomes me And the mystery is done, Hummingbirds will continue To feed on the endless florets Dangling in that wistful tree Where I would sit for hours Alone, in my garden. Kirk Gothier

Autumn is flying in On the wings of banded pigeons Gathering as they do As the days grow shorter. It’s ripening With apples, pears, and blackberries Fragrant in the late summer heat. It sings out With insects in the warmth Of night chasing the Golden glow of a Harvest sunset Below the horizon. Autumn is […]

summer excuses itself & steps out onto the porch for one last look at the falling sun before taking up with the fog muttering something indecipherable about the allure of mysterious women summer’s child begins to suspect this may have been her last season of running in shorts through tall grass wanting nothing more than […]

Yellow leaves litter our camp in under the pepperwoods. Dust rests atop the meadow’s tinder-dry grasses. Fine silt rises with each flip-flop-clad footstep down to the river. Dwindling flow lengthens cobblestone’s mossy beards. By late afternoon, sunlight is half-hearted. Wind moves upriver. Kids, playing in the deep pool, quiet. Preschoolers shiver, towels wrapped around shoulders. […]