Poetry Super Highway

Poetry Super Highway

March 11-17, 2019: Poetry from Taylor Graham and Victoria Kauffman

Taylor Graham and Victoria Kauffman

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Taylor Graham
poetspiper@gmail.com

Bio (auto)

Taylor Graham is a volunteer search-and-rescue dog handler in the Sierra Nevada, and served as El Dorado County’s inaugural poet laureate (2016-2018). She’s included in the anthologies Villanelles (Everyman’s Library) and California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present (Santa Clara University). Her latest book is Uplift (Cold River Press, 2016). Visit Taylor on the web here.

The following work is Copyright © 2019, and owned by Taylor Graham and may not be distributed or reprinted in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author.


Day and Night

Very early morning, October. My internet’s down. Back home on TV, congressional hearings, probing people’s lives for each secret. I’ve come to the library to catch free wifi outside the locked front door. An ancient lady sits propped against her cart, reading. Wizened berry dark-bright as a traveler, absorbed in her book. I sit on a bench waiting while my email loads. I’d take a picture, lady so dark-bright lost in words, but there’s not enough light for my iPad.

shifting shade of leaves
blending shadow with falling
light otherworldly

*

After the library reading, the path’s lit just enough to outline contours of a pull-cart with constricted human form sitting against it. She speaks – to me? The people who came here named it for the place they left behind…. the upsilon traveled with them. Or maybe she’s reciting to herself, or a letter home. Old lady colorful by daylight, almost tapestried; now past twilight, honed down to essentials, monochrome, bone. How can she read with no illumination?

a bat zig-zags past,
self-guided in its knowing
between dark and light

 

Victoria Kauffman
vakauffman22@norfolkacademy.org

Bio (auto)

Victoria Kauffman is a 9th grade student at Norfolk Academy. She enjoys riding horses, reading, and writing.

The following work is Copyright © 2019, and owned by Victoria Kauffman and may not be distributed or reprinted in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author.


They Tried to Build a Fence

They tried to build a fence
That kept out the light.
But they didn’t realize
That the sun rose with the same orange yawns,
That the sun set with the same exultant splashes,
On both sides.
The sun didn’t care.

They tried to build a fence
That kept out the blooms.
But they didn’t realize
That the flowers bloomed with the same confident hues,
That the flowers wilted with the same tired droops,
On both sides.
The blooms didn’t care.

They tried to build a fence
That kept out the seas.
But they didn’t realize
That the water floated with the same calming pace,
That the water roared with the same freeing surges,

On both sides.
The seas didn’t care.

They tried to build a fence
That kept out the winds.
But they didn’t realize
That the breezes passed with the same gentle caresses,
That the breezes thundered with the same mighty gusts,
On both sides.
The winds didn’t care.

They tried to build a fence
That kept out their neighbors.
But they didn’t realize
That the people awakened with the same blinking eyes,
That the people died with the same loving shudders,
Until people hopped the fence.
And then they had to decide:
Who did care?


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