By the Taiya River by Penelope Moffet I let the wind blow through me where alder and willow grow in sandy soil, where light green cottonwood leaves vibrate against the darker greens of spruce and hemlock. Stones pummeled by the river, some white flecked with black, some orange or gray or brown, some round, someContinue reading “By the Taiya River by Penelope Moffet”
Tag Archives: Alaska
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”
Karla Linn Merrifield, Sonnet from Sandy’s Deck
Sonnet from Sandy’s Deckby Karla Linn Merrifield The many redeye jet flightsto the lower 48 statesare departing Anchorage as I sit en plein air belowtheir road, aware I will beaboard one such vessel tomorrow— but not now because I sip lastof Alaskan fireweed madnessand local pinot noir tasting of poetry in larch and spruceand almostContinue reading “Karla Linn Merrifield, Sonnet from Sandy’s Deck”
Fairbanks Under the Solstice by John Haines
Fairbanks Under the Solsticeby John Haines Slowly, without sun, the day sinkstoward the close of December.It is minus sixty degrees. Over the sleeping houses a densefog rises—smoke from banked fires,and the snowy breath of an abyssthrough which the cold townis perceptibly falling. As if Death were a voice made visible,with the power of illumination… Now,Continue reading “Fairbanks Under the Solstice by John Haines”
A Walrus Tusk from Alaska by Alfred Corn
A Walrus Tusk from Alaskaby Alfred Corn Arp might have done a version of it in white marble,the model held aloft, in approximate awe:this touch cross-section oval of tusk,dense and cool as fossil cranium— preliminary bloodshed condonableif Inupiat hunters on King Island mayfollow as their fathers did the bark of a husky,echoes ricocheted from roughed-upContinue reading “A Walrus Tusk from Alaska by Alfred Corn”
Letter from Shuyak Island, Alaska by Helena Minton
Letter from Shuyak Island, Alaskaby Helena Minton To my grandmother I liked to sit at your dressing table.Whiskey-colored perfumes smelled of dust.The photograph beside the mirror showeda serious face, a man in pince-nezwho died the year I was born. Nights, lying on the fold-out couch,I was surrounded: mahogany, Chinese lamps,and paintings of forestsboxed in by bigContinue reading “Letter from Shuyak Island, Alaska by Helena Minton”
POETRY and PLACES 