guardian pine

by susan falk


susan falk guardian pine
:: “Guardian Pine,” oil on canvas, 36″ X 18″, poetry by Pam Galloway

Poem Excerpt: I have listened to the chatter / of souls in the snap-snap of seeds / breaking from its cones in spring. / Now, winter’s deep and silent well / has me submerged and I turn, / entreat that dark-eyed spirit / watch over me.

signatures

by joannie stangeland


1. Water stares back

Here, a thicket
of Nootka rose,
salal clouding low.

Here, a stand of alders.
Each tree a moment.

The forest stories,
writing on the ground,
sound puddled.

The pond opens, a door.
Sudden gold surfaces.

A sunlight knife.


2. The knife writes

The hand signs its name.
Two cup for water.

Sunlight streaks the knuckles.

A palm, a psalm,
another dusk.
My kingdom for a thumb.

In the hand, a glass,
wine darker than blood.

Hands carve the soil, 
plant calendula, 
tomatoes, peppers, kale.

Sun on dirt.
Iron residue.
 


3. Far from Ypsilanti

Noise for the eyes,
the wind clapping,
slim shivers.

Each leaf shimmers its notes
without sound.

I write around the pool’s verge,
stack my little words
like a city built of toothpicks,

empty matchbooks.
Without light.

I leave out
the hard parts,
but I do not leave.

Each silence glints, another knife.
Each cut mutes and opens,
a bad mouth gulping.

Syllables chuck
in my throat, in mud,
on brambles.

Empty pockets.
Raw.

I want to give you a white horse,
a slap on its rump,
a clear path out of here.

I want to give you a glass of wine,
fish and spinach.

I don’t want to watch you 
through that door.

down the road toward tekoa

by kathryn rantala


Something for a moment
further on

strong
or windward
gulch or photographic hills

and in the creek
or wash
the furred the feathered dead

on or on past
Pedersen and Garn
names so certain
as to write on posts

residue
as I am
on these rolled mounds
the worn away
in seams
with plastic

 
What the guidebook says to bring
off-road
may be extinguished

and sometimes that is hope

from here
the signs say
South

 


“Down The Road Toward Tekoa” initially appeared on the JB Stillwater site.

about the journal

Launching in fall 2012, Cascadia Review is an online literary collection designed to highlight the work of those in the Cascadia bioregion.

Publication in Cascadia Review requires current or former residency in the region, which includes all or part of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, British Columbia and Alaska, along with fragments of Nevada, Wyoming and Yukon. See the FAQ page for more information. For the purposes of this publication, residency is defined as living, working, volunteering or studying in the region.

To learn more, please see the About, FAQ and Submissions pages.