Off the Coast picked up two poems for the Spring 2013 issue, and Upstreet, which is sold at Barnes & Noble, published this one:
PRAIRIE WORK DAY
This eighty acres has enough creek
for one beaver family to scrape by,
pasture for three or four bison,
were they allowed in town.
Redwings do well here. Whitetail,
who live anywhere. There’s a hawk.
Four states away a monster storm
takes aim at a third of the country,
while we volunteer in chest-high
messiness that grabs the wind
and quiets it. We run our fingers
up the rough stems of graminoids
to gather seed: Indian Grass,
Turkey Foot, Canadian Wild Rye
we’ll scatter in March on the poor
soil they seem to like, abandoned
dumps and vacant city lots,
or those awkward jogs you find
along rural roads, where true
north and the grid don’t fit.
In addition, poems are forthcoming in Chaffin Journal, C4, Elder Mountain and Storm Cellar; and short memoirs in Clare, and Sugar Mule.
Tomorrow (July 13) I'll have the pleasure of reading with colleagues from the Red Herring Writers Group at a house concert in Urbana. They are a great group of writers and friends, and I've learned a ton from them.
Keep writing.
