Autumn at Owen Beach by Carl “Papa” Palmer Tacoma Washington rains a foggy mist I breathe in cadence with soft whispers of Puget Sound surf heard front row center sitting on this sand-locked log all to myself at Owen Beach. Seeking similes for birds behaving like birds as I float a morning prayer toward theContinue reading “Autumn at Owen Beach by Carl “Papa” Palmer”
Category Archives: states
Granada Park Love by Don Kingfisher Campbell
Granada Park Loveby Don Kingfisher Campbell My life has been a series of trees planted in soilOne has purple flowers nowAmidst the abandoned Stonehenge picnic area of my pastColumns rise but there is no roof, no shelterA tall tree has found its huggerA lone lamp in a green fieldThe only pathway surrounded by other arrangedContinue reading “Granada Park Love by Don Kingfisher Campbell”
In Bayfield by Kenneth Pobo
In Bayfield by Kenneth Pobo The sun trips over a red rock and breaks. The Madeline Island ferry carries dusk shards. At night Bayfield shines little lights on Lake Superior. The town closes down. Wind makes me shiver even in June. The Lake is like my Aunt Stokesia, chilly even in summer, strong in anyContinue reading “In Bayfield by Kenneth Pobo”
Harrisburg, PA, in the Night by Julene Waffle
Harrisburg, PA, in the Night by Julene Waffle The city crawls out from under the hills, sprawling, tempered, reposing under the cool autumn sky. From valley edge to valley edge, it waits for something to happen. Underpass sighs the passing traffic. I breathe it in: frictioned tires, exhaust, catalytic sulfur. Highways circle, rhythmic rumbling above,Continue reading “Harrisburg, PA, in the Night by Julene Waffle”
Winter Sunrise Outside a Café by Joseph Hutchison
Winter Sunrise Outside a Caféby Joseph Hutchison Near Butte, Montana A crazed sizzle of blazing beesin the word EAT. Beyond it, thousands of stars have fadedlike deserted flowers in the thin light washing up in the distance,flooding the snowy mountains bluff by bluff. Moments later,the sign blinks, winks dark, and a white-aproned cook—surfacing in theContinue reading “Winter Sunrise Outside a Café by Joseph Hutchison”
Three Deer in Oquossoc by Sonja Johanson
Three Deer in Oquossoc by Sonja Johanson East will take me back. I drive west. I wend between snowbanks, until the road delivers me to a sleeping boat launch. They stand on the frozen ramp; watch me with coats that are better than mine. Ice houses and snowmobiles edge the distance. I have to turnContinue reading “Three Deer in Oquossoc by Sonja Johanson”
Off A Side Road Near Staunton by Stanley Plumly
Off A Side Road Near Stauntonby Stanley Plumly Some nothing afternoon, no one anywhere,an early autumn stillness in the air,the kind of empty day you fill by taking inthe full size of the valley and its layers leadingslowly to the Blue Ridge, the quality of country,if you stand here long enough, you could stayfor, stepContinue reading “Off A Side Road Near Staunton by Stanley Plumly”
Leaving Denali by Sarah Russell
Leaving Denali by Sarah Russell You must leave Denali as you would a lover, before dawn, while he is blanketed in clouds, while the sentry spruce and larch, dwarfed and crippled by his hand, still drowse in mist. For if they wake, they will whisper your leaving on the wind. Then Denali will woo youContinue reading “Leaving Denali by Sarah Russell”
The Canticle of Jack Kerouac by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The Canticle of Jack Kerouac (Part 2)by Lawrence Ferlinghetti There is a garden in the memory of AmericaThere is a nightbird in its memoryThere is an andante cantabilein a garden in the memoryof AmericaIn a secret gardenin a private placea song a melodya nightsong echoingin the memory of AmericaIn the sound of a nightbirdoutside a LowellContinue reading “The Canticle of Jack Kerouac by Lawrence Ferlinghetti”
Tell Me a Story by Robert Penn Warren
Tell Me a Story (Part A)by Robert Penn Warren Long ago, in Kentucky, I, a boy, stoodBy a dirt road, in first dark, and heardThe great geese hoot northward.I could not see them, there being no moonAnd the stars sparse. I heard them.I did not know what was happening in my heart.It was the seasonContinue reading “Tell Me a Story by Robert Penn Warren”
POETRY and PLACES 