Riff to Summer Solstice

Riff to Summer Solstice from Point Hudson Jetty


Sometimes the pack of yellow dogs you see is not coyote,
merely a trio of black-tailed deer marooned in pale light.

Gaunt one looks me in the eye, hesitates, then scavenges
low tide scrabble kelp, tattered magenta, while two does
stand aloof, in the margins of a dream.

Aloft, fake hollow owls perch mizzenmasts of yawls
moored in the cove, rigged for Glacier Bay, the Bering Sea,
the deep, measured in fathoms, orange survival suits.

Even local cormorants hitchhike dinghies towed by beamy
oak ketches, the Cascade mountain chain, scissor-cut,
like the first time we sail the Sound, close-haul, starboard tack,

squall beating down our coordinates, salt air frizzled like splayed
rind of tangerine, and the pomegranate
for Rosh Hashanah, my friend, Wendy, gave to me,

meaning, precious the New Year—bitter seed to stain the tongue,
plum pink, hue of the emissions plume
over the cardboard box factory, south of town, like the tint

of diesel fumes from the Foss tug as she putt-putts the Strait,
Anacortes-bound—the otter by the pier, pewter in morn’s
first glint—see her?—carbon dioxide exhalation rising, quicksilver,

to the chime of the halyard cleat, bleat of the buoy bell—the Bay
a vat of crimson; and East, backlit wings of doves.


Denise Calvetti Michaels, first published by Crosscurrents, 2012, the Washington Community College Humanities Association Literary Arts Journal
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What the 6th graders at Cedar River Middle School liked about the poetry workshop:

What did you like the most about Rustling Wrens poetry reading & workshop:

Learning about a poem writer.

Hearing the answers to our questions.

Expressing my past and thinking about things I've learned.

The way she writes her poetry.

Getting to remember and realize what we have learned and how that can relate to poetry.

I like that you can picture something in a poem.

Having a real poet in class helped me understand poetry better.

Hearing the poems.

I really like talking about things you've done in your life and how it related to your poems.

I like how I could picture in my mind what was happening in the poems you read.

Listening to others.

Talking about things I thought and things I want to know

Hearing your poems.

Digging deep in our minds to express ourselves.

Hearing poems about family.

How we wrote it all down.

We loved poems about the photos.

Listening to the author's poems.

Writing about my past.

The beach poem was great!

I liked the poems you made and how you let us write, also.

I liked how you gave us time to write, and how you gave us ideas on what to write about.

I liked how you had things that were interactive and had us write things, too.

I like that she let us make our own kinds of stories.

I like that we got to take time to think about our own answers and then share our thoughts.

I like how you had us write.

I like how we saw pictures and heard poems.

I liked how you helped us actually think about using imagination in our poems.

That you can make poems from everything.

I like the list poems, very fun.

Something I will take away is the meaing of the poems.

I liked the different storys and how the poems sounded when she read them.

I liked the descriptive images and how she put different details into one poem.

I loved to write the lists, list poems--thoses are my favorite.  I also like how you showed us pictures of your family to connect to the poetry.

That any lesson learned is a lesson to write about.

That all families are special.

I was thinking of my sister because she loves to read and write--and I would love for you to come here in two years when my sister is here.

I learned about your past--and now I want to teach English in another country--thanks for the inspiration.

I liked all of it--and learned to be a detective and to put myself into the other person's shoes.

Poetry with Middle School Youth

We listened to one another.

We wrote to prompts.

We shared what we wrote.

The writing prompts helped each class of sixth graders to focus on questions:

What lesson do you recall learning, and who taught you this and why is it the lesson you remember? 

When have you been in a situation that was so different from your known context that you passed by without understanding? 

What is it that you only now understand because, earlier, when you were a child, you were only able to see things from your perspective?

How do you imagine your future and is college and service a part of your future? 

In the end, I returned home and sat down with a cup of tea to read their comments about what they liked during the workshop.  It was the opportunity to tell their own stories, meet a "real" poet (poem writer), ask questions....and not have to rhyme. 

poems accepted to RASP anthology,

Good news to know that two of my poems will fold into the proposed RASP anthology

of poets who've read at RASP over the years. 

The anthology, edited by Michael Dylan Welch, will launch with a celebratory reading

this summer, Friday, July 26th. 

More updates soon.