A Mormon literary backcountry where words and place come together.

 

 

 

 

Whispers of Dawlish by Karen Kelsay

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Beside the bank where black swans often lie
in twos, beneath wild fruit trees near the stream
where Chinese geese move single file across
the water like a strand of flags that gleam
with little angled feathertips of light,
I heard her speak. It was a quiet voice,
like summer clouds that weep along low hills
of poplar groves then peacefully rejoice
in [...]

What I Thought and Did Earth Day, Part Three

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

The usual warnings continue to apply.  Parts One and Two here and here.

April 22, 2010, Earth Day and M’s birthday.  Twenty-four hours have passed since the doctor put his words out there.  I’m still hot with anger and grief, still breaking into sobs at the slightest twinge of thought.  I’ve examined M repeatedly for signs [...]

What I Thought and Did Earth Day 2010, Part Two

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Continued warnings: Long post, and a difficult one, especially in combination with Part One (found here.)  If you’re still reading–thank you.

Two days earlier, as I cleared my desk and bookshelf, I was happy to find an old-fashioned booklet containing photographs of me when I was a toddler.  About a year ago I took possession of [...]

What I Thought and Did Earth Day 2010, Part One

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

This is the first installment of a three-part series.  It’s about experiences my family and I had on and around Earth Day two months ago.  Sorry it’s so late–writing it took a while.  Readers be warned: not only do the posts run long but they get hot under the collar as I tell stories about [...]

WIZ Retro Review: The Wild North

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Jules Vincent (marvelously played by Steward Granger) is a happy-go-lucky French trapper making his living off some of the most dangerous country in Canada. He comes to town one day to replenish his supplies.  While there, he rescues a kitten from a bad-tempered collie and an unhappy part-Chippewa woman (Cyd Charisse) from the saloon where [...]

“Closing Time” (rewrite) by Patricia Karamesines

Monday, May 17th, 2010

(for Dad)
Late afternoon came floating down the creek.
Appalachia’s air chilled gradually,
The valley’s likenesses on deeper pools
Shivering as mayflies burst the watercolor
Skins, and theirs, taking to air, trailing
Papery past selves after them in flight.
Brown trout missiled the sylphs, arched and slapped
The surface, falling back, while I cast toward
A trembling pool, slowly wound my line in,
Looked up. [...]

Winners of WIZ’s 2010 Spring Poetry Runoff Contest

Monday, May 10th, 2010

As everyone probably knows, the winner of the Spring Poetry Runoff’s Most Popular Vote Award is Karen Kelsay for her poem, “Waiting for Spring.”  In fact, Karen’s fans filled the top three spots with her poems, all of which, as I’ve noted before, have lovely minstrel qualities.  “Waiting for Spring” exhibits not only Karen’s trademark [...]

A big “Thank you” to Spring Runoff participants

Monday, May 10th, 2010

I would like to thank personally each participant in the 2010 Spring Poetry Runoff Celebration.  You helped make the Runoff a very successful event this year, not just for me but for readers and other participants.  I hope everyone enjoyed the poetry and all-around gathering of talent as much as I did.  The list of [...]

WIZ’s Spring Poetry Runoff Winds Down

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

In one of my favorite haunts, Crossfire Canyon, the creek is flooding as at the lake upstream water jets from the dam’s spillway for the first time ever.   The spring runoff is not even halfway through as a record snowpack melts from the Abajo Mountains upstream and runs down into the desert.
But here at WIZ, [...]

“Easter Sermons” by Harlow Clark

Monday, April 26th, 2010

I
The Rancher Speaks
I was in the sheep business for years.
Sold off my sheep and got into the cattle business and now I have friends.
The cattle men talk to me.
I suppose what finally drove me out was the predators.
The eagles swooping down and taking newborn lambs
and there was nothing we could do about it.
We tried noisemakers [...]