Poetry

Hope can be intoxicating. Reality is the antidote. Mixed up emotions cascade, carom, careen, Ricocheting from vibrant visions of dreamt futures realized Echoing in dark wells of defeat. As the returns return hope dwindles, flickers, and fades away. It’s hard to look at US and not recoil. “That’s not who we are!” We hear it […]

While October holds its breath, the salmon masses, yearning to spawn, yearning for death, pace, undulating and patient, at the blocked river’s mouth, their bodies tasting the freshness of water that waits, still and impotent, on the other side of the summer-structured sand bar. Tight-skinned orcas arc their bulk through the bulging waves, gorging on […]

Here they come, the mourners Along the streets of Jaroujiji, no stranger to slaughter. They are black and slow, and silent too: No joy through tears, No second line for them, But the gagging, unspeakable Stab of child death, With its thousands of Tiny shrouds, And the women from the hills have made paper children […]

Rain is due. I spread mulch Beneath the russet leaves of the blueberry patch. Mold spores fly up in a white cloud As I smooth out the mounds. Then purple orbs catch my eye. The plant’s offering: last taste of summer. — Debby Harrison

One last breath Recalling life, Embracing it all As if nothing Matters, Where suddenly Everything changes, Galaxies collide And Black Holes Emerge, Creating something Better than anyone Could ever imagine Recalling the past Forever… — Kirk Gothier

Framed by towering, lacy hollyhocks Softly rolling in the morning breeze You tip at the rim of the birdbath Like the teeter totter of my childhood Up and down Narrow tail reaching skyward Then dipping to the deck Again and again And I forget about Gaza and Paris And revel in the moment — Jean […]

This morning , Olive-sides was gone: Bare the fir’s thin finger Where he would stand to greet the dawn… Today, no herald singer! Has he been counseled by a star? Or sensed the shrinking day? Recalled the walking trees, afar Along the Mamore? Farewell then, heartiest of birds! Take care with winds and moons! Come, […]

Autumn’s sneak preview In cloudy skies And chill showers. In layers of browning foliage Trimming redwood branches. Hints of yellow Peeking out on maple leaves. A mob of wild turkeys Blocking the road By golden meadows. In the long evening shadows When late sun breaks through. The aroma of rain And dried grasses. Fall is […]

Every year, an old friend visits, Knocking on the morning door Before the chickens go out. Just for a day, Maybe two. The old rivers of light and heat, Much alive, cry  In their thirst for night, With the promises of fading evenings liquored In the scent of blackberries, Gone stale and forgotten in the […]

Let the waters of the Klamath be released. Let the walls of the four hydroelectric dams be blasted apart, ripped down    to bedrock, concrete and rebar pulverized so only the scars will testify to what once spoiled the river. Let the rains come and wash away the remains— the silt, the pesticides, the cyanobacteria —all […]

How good to rest in mountain light. By tumbling brook and jagged mount. The war torn cities far below Know nothing of a world so right. How good to feel the june-warm sun, The cool caress of mountain breeze, As tired muscles and mind unwind And life’s illusions are undone. How good to watch the […]

To know even in my darkest hours that the condors are flying and the dams are coming down. Donna Wildearth