He holds vigil in a ravaged tree,
his fields, once tall with corn,
now snow-tipped stubble.
He accepts the unforgiving wind,
the cold, thin light – not wishing
for tomorrow or warmth or spring –
alive only in what is.
I close my eyes, clear my mind
of stubble in my own fields,
gather Now around me like feathers,
like breath.
When I look again, he rises
on fierce, decisive wings –
his crimson tail as brilliant in the January sky
as truth.
Sarah Russell
First published in Prey Tell
The road curls snug against the hills,
dips into hollows, rises up through stands
of oak, rough against dun clouds
that promise snow.
Old Jimmy waves goodbye, and Maude
is backlit in the door. Homesick starts here
on this gravel road, I guess — nuzzling deep
in sun-sweet quilts, an owl keeping himself
company at midnight, clanking the old stove
to life come morning.
The world is raw, waiting where the road
goes flat and blurs in a rush to get somewhere.
I watched for dawn this morning, breathless to be gone.
Now I want to salt away this place the way it is,
the way I was.
Sarah Russell
First published in Kentucky Review
Winner, Poetry Nook Contest
Christine Klocek-Lim just published my poem “If I had 3 Lives” on her blog Autumn Sky Poetry Daily. Thanks, Christine!
I used to have a website…
I used to have a website where I collected all of my published poems in a kind of portfolio. But there are great poems and poets out there I’d like to share,
and people I want to interact with,
and prompts
and ideas about writing that might be helpful to other writers and poets.
So I decided blogging would be the way to go. I’ve populated my pages just a little so you’ll have something to see when you visit, and I promise to put up a few new prompts as a P.S. in my post every Sunday so if you hit a dry spell, click the link. Maybe you will find some inspiration. I’ll also publish poems that made me laugh or cry, and maybe they’ll move you too and introduce you to new voices.
Take a look around, click the “follow” button if you’d like to get my updates (and those ever-useful prompts) and leave me a note so I can meet you too. Thanks for visiting!
Sarah
After “Melbourne” by the Whitlams
If I had three lives, I’d marry you in two.
The other? Perhaps that life over there
at Starbucks, sitting alone, writing – a memoir,
maybe a novel or this poem. No kids, probably,
a small apartment with a view of the river,
and books – lots of books, and time to read.
Friends to laugh with, and a man sometimes,
for a weekend, to remember what skin feels like
when it’s alive. I’d be thinner in that life, vegan,
practice yoga. I’d go to art films, farmers markets,
drink martinis in swingy skirts and big jewelry.
I’d vacation on the Maine coast and wear a flannel shirt
weekend guy left behind, loving the smell of sweat
and aftershave more than I did him. I’d walk the beach
at sunrise, find perfect shell spirals and study pockmarks
water makes in sand. And I’d wonder sometimes
if I’d ever find you.
Sarah Russell
First published in Silver Birch
Winner of the Poetry Nook contest
Republished in Autumn Sky Poetry Daily
Sarah Russell Poetry 