Winter 2016: Poetry

Northwest Equinox

by Kris Demien

In this season between new moons, blood
moons, and the scythe, clouds, and clouds,
and clouds gather, corralled at the edge of the west hills.
We look up, at an opening
in the dilemma of our own making, wondering
if our salvation floats above us in the flocked bellies of sheep.
Drought dyes the eastern sky the color of ripening tomatoes at noon.
We do not bother to clean, or harvest. We hope rain
will take the dust out of the air, and swell the pears. When the earth
still wore her icy veils in this season, when her flows alternated,
hot and cold, in a predictable rhythm, before we scarred her,
and drilled her, and searched her, and cleared her with unending desire,
it was here, in this time that we’d sort it all out,
the keepers from the throw-backs, the seed from the bedding,
and measure our results. We’d leave through the back door,
our tools in hand: Our poles and nets and hooks;
our jack knives and our baskets, our clippers
and our pruning knives. We’d stoop low and
gather what we could. We would smell the tang
of leaves ready to turn. We would wake to a later
dawn, and feel the chill of last night’s quiet rain
in our bones. Now, we watch the sky, waiting for drops
to fall, waiting for the small, dark dots of wet
to appear in the garden’s dust. We pack away the sandals
and the sunscreen, and find the rain hat
on a hook in the basement, the boots
under the stairs. In this season between intention and result,
between the seed and the fruit, between what to take out
and what to leave in, we try to get comfortable sitting on a sharp,
new edge we honed ourselves.

Poetry Celebrating nature, home and the cycles of life – twenty poets light the winter night.		Prose Six stories use magic to explore loss, grief and healing.		Artwork With imagery of flora and fauna, four artists animate the winter landscape.		Young Voices Five young women dig deep to each speak their individual truth .		Contributors From emerging to established writers – meet the women behind our eighth issue’s voices and visions.

LETTER FROM THE MANAGING EDITOR POETRY         Northwest Equinox by Kris Demien         Gradations of Gray by Wendy Thompson         With Gladness by Sara Graves         Home by Leora Marialicia González         For a Grade School Classmate by Joan Maiers         Canning Factory Road by Elizabeth Stoessl         To Make a Prairie by Carolyn Martin         At Home by Suzy Harris         Family Disagreement by Tricia Knoll         The Bullfrogs by Katherine Boyer         Cows by Rebecca Jamieson         Lesson by Stacey Vallas         Stardust by Erin Iwata         Perspective by Carolyn Martin         Lacrosse Season by Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo         The Tangled Path by Suzanne LaGrande         Matched Set by Tanya Jarvik         False Bus Stop by Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo         Last Visit by Erin Iwata         October Walk with My Mother by Ann Sinclair         First Rothko Exercise by Elizabeth McLagan         Fractions by Susan Blackaby         Tea by Melineh Yemenidjian         Return by Stacey Vallas PROSE         Scarab Man by Cynthia McGean         Planetary Influences by Alida Thacher         Bone of the Past by Burky Achilles         Teachings: A Buddhist Ghost Story by Ann Sihler         Wrangler by Desiree Wright         A Nicaraguan Spring by Pamela Russell Bejerano FEATURED ART         Into the Wonder by Annamieka Hopps Davidson         Deep Blue Meditation by Annamieka Hopps Davidson         Weave Me Into the Sea by Annamieka Hopps Davidson         Crassula 2 by Alison Foshee         Crassula 5 by Alison Foshee         Crassula 6 by Alison Foshee         Warm Autumn by Tamar Hammer         Girl with Conch by Tamar Hammer         With Her Dog by Tamar Hammer YOUNG VOICES         Love Beyond Loss by Isabel Lickey         Submerged by Raimy Khalife Hamdan         Which Way? by Alli Rodenbaugh         To Autumn by Sara Barkouli         The Storm by Elie Doubleday CONTRIBUTORS