A Mormon literary backcountry where words and place come together.

 

 

 

 

“In the Sweet Alone” by Karen Kelsay

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Sitting cross-legged beneath the cherry tree,
wearing her mother’s seed pearl necklace
and a sprig of jasmine on her bodice—
she offers blossoms to a gravestone.
The gilt and gold of late afternoon washes
through shadows. It’s springtime. Unripened
fruit hangs like quiet temple bells between
flowering cylinders of white, and brides
with dark branches. Somewhere in the sweet alone,
silence caps hilltops and [...]

“Spring Outing” by Nani Furse

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Storm in these hills
frays each edge
of symmetry:  shadow-snow
drawn under earth and stone
by threaded rain.
Bone-red willows
banked by sage
tangle cold echoes,
sharing the motion
of water turned wind
in search for transparent green.
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Nani Lii S. Furse is a SAHM, proof that she’s learning textese in an effort to communicate with her teens and young adult children.  She earned a [...]

“Nospringland” by Gabriel Aresti Jr.

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

There is a poem about spring
That I read
Every time you kill
It tells
About rebirth
And joy and peace
It’s sad that we no longer share
The eyes
To read it in the same way.
You forgot it.
You forgot we were brothers.
You forgot about springs.
You say you kill to free
A land
Where springs
No longer
Blossom
In your eyes.
We no longer share those eyes.
There is no [...]

“Like Urban Tumbleweed” by Davey Morrison

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

Like urban tumbleweed the
plastic grocery bag blew across the empty
overcast park, green with the whispers of
storm;
we watched it approach, you
nestled into me, silent, from across the
grassy expanse and pavement, with the same
nervous smiling, quiet intrusion any other
stranger might have greeted us–
tipped its rustling head and averted its eyes,
leaving us to our leaves
and our close, closed [...]

“milkweed” by Polly Parkinson

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

where i broke off a stem,
white drops oozed
in a milky trickle from the plant
growing wild
in the vacant lot next door.
“bring the plant you found
it on,” my mother had said
as we settled my caterpillar
in the glass quart jar
that would be its home.
i liked to pound the hammer
on a sharp nail, driving
breathing holes into the jar lid
after [...]

“Seasonal Ritual” by Jon Ogden

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

On Sundays in rows of chaos,
Children shouting over a tinny piano,
Spring was popping popcorn —
Week after week, we took it in armfuls.
As a teen, blooming was the last breath of winter.
The snow having seeped into roots of trees,
Pushing methodically to tips of limbs,
Bursting into blossom, then blowing off again in flaky grace.
And there’s still this [...]

“Softer Joy” by Nathan Meidell

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Something curious all around, in everything I see.
A rippled wave against the world
first pushes against me.
I see it when you enter here, all breathless tides withdrawn,
and heavy moon within my heart,
recedes into the dawn.
A softer joy within your eye becomes my emerald star,
and skies lit up with comet smiles
stretch near to ears afar.
Like springtime’s hush, [...]

“Happy” by Mary-Celeste Lewis

Friday, March 26th, 2010

‘Twas yesterday I saw a crack
That stretched across the sky.
It pushed the silken curtains back
And hung the trees to dry.
It glittered gold—A shining slice
Of glorious pearly cream
And shattered all the sadness ’round
With its single shining beam.
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Mary-Celeste Lewis has golden hair, blue eyes, and loves to play with her nieces and nephews.  When she’s not [...]

“Spring-Eh-Field” by Gabriel Aresti Jr.

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Naturally we’re turning romantic
I guess it’s age
But maybe we were just like this
From the very beginning.
Spring it’s coming, see the birds,
She says,
I say
Yeah, spring is close
It’s the greatest time of the year
She says,
I say,
Yeah, mine too.
But I can’t help but keep on
Thinking what the heck
Has to do spring
With my favourite team’s winning streak.
I guess it’s [...]

“Handmaidens of Spring” by Karen Kelsay

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

Slowly, after evening has gathered her stars,
Daybreak quietly spreads over the meadowland.
Foxglove and larkspur rise like tranquil towers
Floating in the shadowy, purple dawn.
Briar patches, woven with dewy blackberries,
Hedge around crooked oaks where sparrows
Flit in the branches. Small clouds of palest pink,
Mushroom in the soft-born morning light,
And linger above the violet embroidered vales.
Soon, all the budding [...]