Valentine’s Day
Contributed by William Schmidtkunz
It was the first living thing I'd seen born,
My daughter
Bursting from wife's womb
Umbilical cord dancing and lively
With a baby at the end
Mouth open to the world
Primal scream
Primal joy.
We brought her home in the work truck.
Wife on knees sitting backwards,
Watching her life unfold behind her
A timeline, a lifeline,
Yet another umbilical cord
Girl-child to woman to wife to mother.
Baby in basket on 2x6 boarded kitchen table asleep,
Wishing she doesn't wake up until she is 16.
So nervous, new dad.
Wife hobbled with stitches to outhouse to pee.
Then laid on plywood floor
By 55 gallon oil barrel stove
To sleep.
We were alone,
But we were a trinity.
We would each in turn take on the responsibilities -
Find the path, find the doors, find the keys,
Reach out and turn the locks
To the treasured secrets that make life worthwhile.
We achieved the harmony.
We consecrated the whole.
We were gentle and sincere.
We circled the wagons.
We made it a home.
THE LITTLE SU
Contributed by John Martin
HIGH IN THE TALKEETNAS
WHERE THE PEAKS MEET THE BLUE
ARISES A MIGHTY RIVER
IT’S CALLED THE LITTLE SU
MELTING GLACIERS
AND AN OCCASIONAL RAIN
ANO WIDE LONG VALLEYS
LITTLE SU DOES DRAIN
LITTLE SU - LITTLE SU
WANDERING THROUGH
THE VAST MAT-SU
GRIZZLY PROSPECTORS
DARING ANO BOLD
COMBED THE HEADWATERS
IN SEARCH OF GOLD
A FORCE OF NATURE
ITS FLOW DOES SHOW
THE INHERENT DANGERS
TO THE UNWARY SOUL
IT MOVES HEAVY ROCKS
SAND ANO SOILS
COUNTLESS PLACES
THE WATER SIMPLY BOILS
TWENTY-FIVE MILES
DOWN MOUNTAIN SIDES
‘TIL IT REACHES FLATLANDS
SO VAST AND WIDE
NOW IT MEANDERS
THROUGH SPRUCE AND BIRCH
AN OUTLET TO OCEAN
AN ENDLESS SEARCH
A CONSTANT SOURCE
OF DIVERSE FUN
THE MOST IMPORTANT
THE SALMON RUN
A HOME FOR WILDLIFE
MOOSE, BEAR AND BEAVER TOO
NATURE'S HABITAT
ALONG THE LITTLE SU
THE YUKON’S LONG - THE KUSKO’S WIDE
KENAI FLOWS A VIVID BLUE
FOLKS THROUGHOUT THE MAT-SU VALLEY
STILL HOLD DEAR THE LITTLE SU
LITTLE SU - LITTLE SU
WANDERING THROUGH
THE VAST MAT- SU
The Garden
Contributed by Robert Lyons
Many times, I’ve seen this land, we walk for weeks to gather feast.
One new spring, I make a plan, to spread the seed near our river’s beach.
I do not know if this will work, but I’ve seen rain bring grass to plains.
I don’t see how it could hurt, save the pain, relocate the grain.
Giving my all a ditch, I dig, unyielding rush flowing to field,
Taken to draw rows with a twig, leftover waste now spread in place.
Yes! Sprouting green sapling stalk! Now fish and fiber together to dish!
No venture, no more walk, my buffet forever in a line under Sol’s sweet shine.
The Victim
Contributed by Brett Ahern
This poem plays off the different applications of the term “victim” in sacrifice, the Passover and our culture:
The Victim
Barely alive,
Bitter, bruised, battered, neglected,
Hurting beyond endurance,
Pain tortuously carves the shrieking, shriveling, shattered heart.
Worse than neglected, hated.
Attacked, turns back to icy stares.
Pretending not to care, isolated.
Loosing warmth, loneliness the only friend.
Eyes fade, shoulders slouch, head low,
Body reflects heart, the unloved desert.
Pain cry moans for an eternity,
Truth - enslaved humanity.
Nothing within could withstand such an attack.
Satan gloats. Victory gained. Egypt revisited.
Proud people despise love -
Refusing to give what they crave to earn.
The price too high to pay -
Abandon the empty life,
Participate in life eternally.
Another heart dies, sacrificed to vanity;
Egyptian tombs multiply.
Human history: anemic heart, cries, dies, bitterness thrives, love despised, a new slave master comes alive.
Victims multiply as the creation cries,
“God, WHY?”
He sends rain.
Slowly, meticulously, abundantly.
Mountains move, pits fill, paths straighten.
Way prepared, another born.
Bruised, battered, neglected, hurt beyond endurance,
Worse than neglected, hated.
But heart thrives,
Declaring, “God is alive!”
Attackers faced, radiates God's supply.
Life mirrors heart, the loved garden,
Sings liberties' joys.
Spirit moves,
Lawful man travels the land,
Truth works, reveals God's plan.
Awe builds, people consider,
Truth's Jubilee.
Satan rages, all coming undone! Israel established in Him.
Finding an empty heart, Satan schemes,
Innocent victim dies; vanity survives.
But this heart thrived to the last,
Refusing death,
Its God's Son,
God's love inside.
Victim resurrects, true heart multiples.
Egypt's tombs emptying,
God's love comes inside.
The call goes far and wide,
To shattered, bitter, dead hearts everywhere,
“It's resurrection time. Let God live here!”
Satan works; people bruise, batter, neglect, hate,
But God inside makes heart thrive.
The crucified declare, “God is alive!”
Truth flows inside out.
Offer heart, the perfect sacrifice.
Love's presence multiplies,
Living life eternally thrives.
The Fool Of April
Contributed by Nan Potts
Enter fools, when April tends to trod -
Where the sun has been, on its winter plod;
Flaunts teasing glimpses of spring’s hopeful nod
With warming rays to thaw frozen sod.
Dark boughs, burdened with rime and snow -
Evidence of a winter’s reign, bow low;
Anxious to release this laden floe
And rebound to catch the light and grow.
A breath of air, a gentle puff -
Stirs branch and bough, shedding icy muff;
Exposing needles, dark and rough
For April’s sun to catch, can’t get enough.
Now a glow begins to arise -
The sun shines higher in clearer skies;
The drip, drop, drip of melt, surmise
That snow and slush will vaporize.
The arrival of spring begins its fling -
Meaning trees will leaf and birds to sing;
The promise of long days, no nights that cling
Though short of span, loud praises ring.
But wait! What’s this upon my deck -
I gaze in awe, muttering, “What the heck?”
My dog’s in white stuff up to his neck!
I should have known. It’s not spring yet!
