We are collections of stories—yearning Yearning, a dog curled next to us We are full, the tops of our heads aglow with stories We are stories How we tell them matters I can tell them so many ways I can paint myself tall: Survivor I can paint myself innocent & scarred I am a runner […]
Category: Poetry
Light Is A Wave That I Ride
I bring you the sound of the waves underneath my board. I bring you my solitude — hard won, necessary. I bring you the sun, the wind, my inability to know its direction. The wind was moving; its direction didn’t matter. I kept moving & not moving. I was still & not still & the […]
Love Song
Love Song by Nancy Schatz Alton I write my own love song equal parts poetry & sorrows every experience that shattered me sits next to my strength. The rain slants & this is still the perfect phrase reused like sorrow & sadness as familiar as rage & grief. We seek new ways to describe the […]
June
The breeze is full of cold water straight from the Sound. There’s s concentric ring around the sun. Ice crystals make a faded rainbow The sun makes a mark on the red umbrella. The girls are away making their way away from me. This always feels good. I am satisfied knowing they are off being […]
Everything
I want to be everything. To be everything, I’d have to give up too much: the 5-minute hug that helped my daughter greet her day clean laundry eating feeding my loves walks where we talk about cars & clouds your growing up my growing up how we grew each other up while I desperately […]
Morning Song
Morning Song by Nancy Schatz Alton “The best chance to be whole is to love whatever gets in the way until it ceases to be an obstacle.” -Mark Nepo I love the dirt-caked kitchen floor, the way I wake and clean her, how she feels upon my feet, new: ready to start again. I […]
Transcendence
Transcendence by Nancy Schatz Alton I want to go out drumming to be a drummer & hold the beat for the band. I want to be the one smiling, counting, holding the pulse deep in my body. I watch the drummers: they hold the fun, the glee, their bodies sway. The trumpeters, the trombonists, the […]
The Weather
The Weather by Nancy Schatz Alton A dress is a house. My home. I live within her folds. Its flounce moves with the weather. My house has so much weather. I am all metaphor: tassel & ribbon, extra fabric, dainty flowers, bold stripes. I draw my dress’ angles. My arms make a thatched roof, My […]
See The Sky
Fear lives in me. I’m trying to blockade the couch. Hide the snacks. Open the door. Point out the sky. Can you hear the crows? You could be the warning within their caw. Go, fear go. Oh, my fear, you aren’t so easily removed. My couch so worn. My dog, so warm. I get it, […]
In May
In May by Nancy Schatz Alton Seven years is the change you were seeking When you didn’t know that Life changes every seven years That’s what you learned Sitting in Esther’s house Which is a collage of her life That holds you in an embrace When […]