August 2015
I have nearly 300 poems in public in many different places, both online and in print, in several countries from the US and UK, to the Philippines and Malaysia, Hong Kong to Canada. I often write on natural themes, showing our place within the grand scheme, based on my travels around the West. Recently I have been responding to other odd prompts— stories of people and places. I'm a semi-retired English teacher in California, without a chapbook to my name.
photograph by Emily Strauss
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Reward Driving by in the early light I stop to look at a pale sandstone mesa cross-hatched like a frozen bee hive rising hundreds of feet I scramble across, breathing hard stand dizzy staring up, feel very small: juniper and piñon surround me sand hedgehog cactus sun light morning cool suddenly I hear it— seven falling notes ending up, again tripping down the scale down the sheer walls pure invisible notes: a canyon wren calls somewhere above— my reward for standing in the cool shade one moment longer. |
©2015 Emily Strauss