March 2024
Bio Note: The beginning of this year is full of excitement for me. I offered two poems from my new chapbook The Unknown Daughter in the January issue of Verse Virtual which comes out from Finising Line Press on March 1. In February Fernwood Press released my full length book about the process of downsizing and moving 3,003 miles from Oregon to Vermont in 2018 right into Covid and to welcome two grandsons. Now to poems from Wild Apple:
Advice for the Traveler
Let your lover kiss your arms, cheeks, lips, and neck
for protection. Wash your feet with lavender oil.
Fold pieces of your past
into cranes for your backpack.
Tuck your sliver of a silver saint in a breast pocket.
Double-knot strong laces on generous shoes with hefty tread.
Pull the bill down on your green hat till glory upends it
and the sweat of going gives over to cooler winds.
When a hum rises from the highway, rub whichever bone
is your wishbone and keep on going.
Be not afraid of crosses by the road. Offer them
the gentle roses of your breath.
Originally published in Antiphon Poetry Magazine
Wild Apples
Mellow gold skin
with a hot-flash blush
sprung in a wetland
where wanderers dropped seed
or where neglect overcame
a pioneer orchard. Unkempt
volunteers respected
for hardiness, serving
beyond their time.
Come September,
heavy-bearing limbs
beckon, tease the doe
and taunt the coming snow.
Wild apples.
Is this who I am?
No one’s necessity
ripening
to cider –
sweet,
then a tart toast
before it vinegars.
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to say what it is about the poem you like. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -JL