Poetry

Suddenly, the leaves are all gone. The storms gave ample notice: Ignored. The alders will now paint the day’s luster, On a rare afternoon, posing As a cruel cheat of Autumn, Dripping spoonfuls of honey, Across the big bends of a fresh river. Evenings are still two months out. Here, morning’s curfew still remains As […]

at twenty I wrote a poem that would be a song sung by a woman in her twenties when I was sixty at thirty I wrote a poem that was a dream I had at twelve of a woman who is eternal at forty I found that place between the biding time and fully awake […]

Only humans could contrive Infinite numbers of ways To turn devices On/Off. We all struggle looking for What activates everything Every minute, of every day. Fortunately, artificial intelligence will Soon enable us to simply ask, For whatever we need! Kirk Gothier

Buckets of stars Cast across the frozen snow Glitter on the drive home Dottie Simmons Dinsmore

“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 […]

There once was a sweet rufous hummer Who came to my feeder all summer He twisted and twirled His bright colors swirled Now it’s winter- he’s gone What a bummer! Jean Munsee

Is how I remember you — in a single turning coil, or in scraps too uneven to hold together, and always feeling the blade moving beneath the skin where it would draw blood if the edge cut through. Jennifer Fumiko Cahill

The world tilts far enough now Where summer is almost a secret, And lifetimes can easily pass in the still air. During our walks, then, Over brilliant orange, gold and new sky, Her sadness came to be: Neatly placed Into the yielding grasp Of a freshly fallen maple leaf. Then, sealed into a shiny blue […]

All the pain we feel Is best left by the river, With babbling brooks. Kirk Gothier

All Hallows Eve! The sun, Descending into a pyre of branches, becomes a Jack o’Lantern And, bidden, they spring up on the dark roads Steps, and windows across the dimming land. Look! Inferno is in their eyes. Irony is on their lipless, pillared grins. And see the Dead! Crouching like cats In the adjacent blackness, […]

The night I saw the mountain lion I saw her eyeshine first And then her head And then her frame Then something that was worse Her stance was over-rigid She was wound and set to spring Her eyes were locked upon me And I was everything My light shone bright upon her I knew to […]

Natives lived in those caves out behind the farmhouse, their artifacts trickle out with each new generation exploring the cool dark, carrying big sticks & fierce imaginations on their bear hunts. Timid beasts, those black bears, bold only for the brief run of salmon berry down along the creek. One winter the snow melted and […]