Poverty Gulch
The light that is cast from an amber bead
makes me believe in Poverty Gulch
and Busted Flats, in seeds of trauma
and saltwater saunas, in Little Books
and Black Canyon, in Paradox Valley
and Mendicant Mountain, in brokers that broker
and ogres that ogre, in self destruction
and getting sober. From mala beads
discovered in a Chevy Impala
to Joe Cocker haunting the halls
of Crawford to the stories delivered
from the open heart’s chamber
I’ve come to believe holy are
these winds blowing through Whitewater.
Cherita
Watching the moon her mood turned
from black to blue
to wholly new
and back again
as only moons
are wont to do.
Yield Signs
Just as winter surrenders
to spring and summer
succumbs to fall
we finally come to yield
to a milkweed
and dandelion lawn.
Whole
What if all the parts of me,
from the ancient
to the twee, from the formal
to the free, from the jester
to the brooder, from the scholar
to the woo
woo healer,
from the salt
water spring
to the old forest
fire,
were not just integrated
but reconciled…
Award-winning poet Wendy Videlock serves as Colorado’s Western Slope Poet Laureate. She lives at the edge of a canyon in Palisade with her husband and their various critters. Her works appear widely and her books are available where books are sold.
Read two poems by Wendy Videlock previously appearing in Terrain.org.
Header photo by Romolo Tavani, courtesy Shutterstock.
