It has been eight months since I started feeding the hummingbirds. I hung a feeder on the deck railing off our living room. The garden is two flights of stairs below so they often fly up from beneath to perch and drink. Being a Massachusetts girl, even after over forty years in California, I worried … More Sharing–Featured Poem for December, 2021
I now know more people who have had breakthrough Delta COVID than I know who had COVID before they were vaccinated. While my friends don’t happen to be dangerously sick, thankfully, this is a time to do our best to remember that sickness and displacement can also bring opportunities for connection and caring. I wish … More Convalescence-Featured Poem August, 2021
I have been refining and rewriting this poem for a couple of years. I pleased to share this version but it might still change. My daughter is a very active knitter right now and I am repeatedly inspired by the delightful textures, rich colors, and sheep smells of the different wools. Knitting seems to me … More Pacific Coast – Featured Poem January, 2021
Like many poets, I have a growing collection of pandemic poems. Here is one for a smile. In the San Francisco summer fog I feel even more like I am hibernating. Hope you and yours are staying as well and joyful, as you can. Cardboard Boxes ( Shelter-in-Place; May 2020) Lying inside, on the … More Featured Poem: July, 2020
We lived in Sacramento three days a week this past year. I enjoyed the differences between San Francisco and Sacramento. There is the heat and cold, both of which are more in Sacramento, and the glorious deciduous trees. They bring back memories of New England and Upstate New York. South Land Park Twilight Heat … More Featured Poem: June, 2020
Chimney Raven It croaks twice, sounding deep in my chimney.Pitching my voice to raven guttural,I mimic the call.Its claws scrabbling on the metal flueit caws and awks two times more.I try again, just one croak. I receivesilence.Silence. The next day, the bird declaims againfrom a perch on the neighbor’s roofwhere it sips from a puddle … More Featured Poem: December, 2019
Red Velvet Cupcakes with almond cream cheese icing, still tenderly breathing from the oven. Crunch of the sugared cake crust in the midst of sweet softness. Red from the cochineal bugs, unabashedly and gloriously fake like stripes of fuchsia in a millennial’s hair. A classy surprise, pleased by its own display. I choose this poem … More Featured Poem – May, 2019
One from my upcoming book of poems- Inner Sunset. These past few warm days set my winter kale to blossoming. Stars The kale went to flower and then seed. In the midday warmth, pale green cabbage butterflies swirl and ride on yellow stars exploding out of plant tops, sparks from wands, slow motion fireworks. … More Featured Poem April 1, 2019
There is so much rain. I need a flower poem! Lotus A dried bundle of seeming death in the dark and silence, my winter hyacinth. First roots grow slowly. Then her densely folded, tender tip emerges out the bulb. Tiny leaves are blanched naked, cold white grubs. From the downstairs cold closet I carry the … More Featured Poem March 1, 2019
There Is A Bison In The Front Yard Ancient rhinoceros of our plains, one solitary bull shuffles and snuffles through autumn grasses. Mahogany mane surrounds a neckless horned head, and drapes humped shoulders, carpets upper front legs. There the robe ends, exposing naked buttocks, slender ankles, delicate hooves. Barely balancing a bow-legged bulk, he precisely … More Featured Poem, January 7, 2018
Heather Saunders Estes 