When secret places in the forest are crisscrossed full of trails When wild things live in cages and the ocean is bare of whales When the highest mountains are all paved and the Condor is not saved Will human involvements continue to be waived? Have you seen? wild horses in the wild prairies of untamed […]
Poetry
Posted inArts + Scene
Weekend Events Honor David Josiah Lawson
Two events are happening this Saturday, April 17, honoring the life of David Josiah Lawson. The 4Years-4Miles J4J Walk and second annual Coat Drive starts with a run/walk/skateboard/stroll at noon at Arcata City Hall that then heads to the Humboldt Bay Trail and Arcata Marsh and ends up at the Arcata Plaza around 2:30 p.m. for a […]
Posted inArts + Scene
2020
Despite the Year, Nothing was clear. We all look through Our lens of choice, As Nature bats. Maybe hindsight Will be 2020? Kirk Gothier
Posted inArts + Scene
Fun Fungi
When hiking on a forest trail if duff is wet, and light is pale, late fall and winter, early spring, then comes the fruit that fungi bring. They pop from snags and fallen trees through dung and duff, new forms are teased, and inside each, protected there grow spores that someday take to air. Some […]
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A Pandemic Poetry Reading with Laureate David Holper
When the city council appointed David Holper Eureka’s first poet laureate in 2019, it was supposed to last a year. Then again, a lot of things turned out differently than planned in 2020 and the term was extended. You can watch Holper’s live reading via Zoom and on Public Access Channel 8 on Tuesday, April […]
Posted inArts + Scene
What Remains
You find out what’s a poem the Hard way some times A scrap of line you threw away two days Ago and now look at you bent over the dumpster at the waist Sneaking a bite of pizza while you Think no one can see you It’s not everyday that the end of the world […]
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Sprung
Like a long-rusted statue The robin stands stock-still But with a spasm and a spurt He comes to life Plucks a worm From the earth And leaves it too J. Commander
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Word Humboldt Offers Online Poetry Workshops
Word Humboldt, KEET-TV and the Humboldt County Library have teamed up to offer a series of online poetry workshops in support of the new documentary Hemingway premiering on KEET on April 5. The workshop series, Taking the Hemingway Out of Hemingway: Poetry, Social Justice and the ‘Great American Novelist,’ kicks off Thursday, March 25 at […]
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RAIN DAY, sort of
Your phone said rain Wear a raincoat, you said Mine said drizzle, I didn’t bother People in the Co-op parking lot pulled up their hoodies except for one man with a broken umbrella he held it over his head as he walked to his truck The trees, the streets, the crows called, Rain! We all […]
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Good Morning
The ache in my arm Welcomes me back, To the world we shared For almost 7 decades. As the sun enlightens Trees I have known In all ways imaginable, Plum blossom promises Have never been More inviting. Kirk Gothier
Posted inArts + Scene
On Seeing Haliaeetus leucocephalus in Flight
Most unjustly I deprecated you For being on coins, flags, insignia Feathers plucked from someone else’s headdress For depicting an us that is not us A bald figurehead hatching lie after lie But I never really saw you, did I? Their flattened likenesses were never yours Now, I see you hovering above me, now Nobody’s […]
Posted inArts + Scene
May I remember to not know
Circle upon circle spiral over spiral each day turns and the moon follows her cycle and the earth rotates unfolding a life. This dawn light this October air this April sun are all familiar, but not quite. The familiar tempts me to not look because I think I already see. The ordinary tempts me to […]