Saturday, July 14, 2018

洞月亮 Cave Moon Press July 2018

FEATURED POET Finn Wilcox worked in the woods at the upper elevations of the Olympics and the Cascades with Olympic Reforestation Incorporated, a forest workers co-op, for twenty-five years; he planted well over a million trees. He rode freight trains for several years to learn about the life, journeys, and history of the once-respected American Hobo. His first book, Here Among the Sacrificed (Empty Bowl, 1984), includes the poignant images of legendary Northwest photographer Steven R. Johnson, depicting people in boxcars and railroad yards who appear in Finn’s memorable poems and stories. In addition to the full content of Here Among the Sacrificed, Wilcox’s latest collection, Too Late to Turn Back Now contains his poems from Nine Flower Mountain, detailing travels in China; Lesson Learned, a group of love poems; and Not Letting Go, a suite of new poems and stories. With Jeremiah Gorsline, Finn edited WORKING THE WOODS, WORKING THE SEA: An Anthology of Northwest writing (Empty Bowl, 2008). Finn and his wife Pat Fitzgerald live in Port Townsend.


LA PUSH
Walking the flats—
through brushed huckleberry
and tall, tough salal—
I find the place
we spread my mother’s ashes
nearly a decade ago.

You can hear the rolling ocean
just beyond this sandy hump
that rises in the silvered-light
of drift-logs,
luminous,
in thin coastal fog.

I hope she’s happy here.
She was more than just a good woman.
Always that glitter of faith rendered
from a heart
big as these old-growth spruce.

Before I leave,
I make her a headstone

of the perfect blue sky,
above a perfect blue sea


with all its deliberate beauty.


HOW TO WRITE A POEM

My dog Walt
steps onto his bed
fourteen and deaf as a stone
paws at it thoughtfully
turns in a circle
once
twice
three times
before setting
his boney ass down

happy as a two-peckered toad.

WRITE YOUR POEM

Serendipity.  As I try to offer encouragement about writing poetry, Finn tells me about his fourteen year-old dog.  At my feet is my son's fourteen year-old dog.  We are dog sitting. So below here, you have one way I have to learn from the masters.  Try to imitate what they do, as flattery and a way of learning.  It works at the Louvre.  All apprentices have to sweep the floor and imitate.  Find your favorite poem and imitate the master.

HOW TO WRITE A POEM
After Finn Wilcox

My son's dog Selah

shivers, and lays down
fourteen and terrified
the gunshots across the street
tangle her at my ankles
she
becomes 
my shadow
before she lays down
her blinking eyes weary

Without a word, I look down, 

Your name means, "Pause"

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