December 2015
Emily Strauss
emily_strauss@hotmail.com
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. 
Author's Note: Happy Holidays to all with these two gifts of art from a friend of mine, Elizabeth Bennett, paired with my poems.
Artist's Statement:  As a child, I spent hours on my stomach working in coloring books.   I was wild with excitement over ones that had aliens, sea creatures, polka dots, or anything to do with the aurora borealis. I am now married with three adult children.  I am still wild with excitement when I draw, although I spend significantly less time on my stomach.

​Elizabeth Bennett
Cupertino, CA

New Moon on Paper
​
Convict Lake lies calm and tan
filling the paper, silent reflection 
of granite peaks.

a fringe of lodgepole 
pines must ring the shore
out of the picture in the shadows. 

their tall, thin trunks reflect
like dark icicles in straight lines
from the top edge across the still depths 
like fingernail scratches, violet gray
lines etched into its mirrored surface. 

two dark forms float to my right,
grebes breaking the mirror, 
ripples spread faintly in the still evening
the new moon with its white rim 
barely visible overhead.

I imagine thunder rumbling from
the White Mountains fifty miles away,
the lake almost disturbed — 
I will sleep soundly tonight.


​


​Sun in a Puddle with Cricket


still life in orange— 
splashed across the page
across the road
sun reflecting down
its yellow disk
exactly in the middle
within the water
glowing, several black lines
skate across the edges
like star paths on glass,
a few smaller bright 
circles with faint dark
centers like aureoles
over pebbles surround
a cricket— 

frozen on the surface
resting or floating dead
in the sun's glare
a still life in the sun
smudges of lives lost
empty carapaces
we float on the surface
stilled life at rest
after the rain
Both works: "Untitled" 2011. Monotype H/C on wood panel, 6" x 6". Created for Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica CA 50/50 show. Copyright Elizabeth Bennett. Used with permission from the artist.
©2015 Emily Strauss