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, […]
May
May in Seattle is as green as the greenest green. If you see the color Kelly green when you read that, you are partially right. But add more greens: wet grass green during a rainy spring day. The way green looks as the sunlight hits it at 7pm, just as the light starts to dim. […]
This Week
I want to write you another perfect poem. As perfect as every poem is right after you write it: all my desire and language in a box on a page, playing with the white space. But here I am with a list of to do’s, a need to prep for class and pick up a […]
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 […]
Self Portrait
Self-Portrait by Nancy Schatz Alton Would you believe me now If I told you I was saved? We all slow down for the wreckage Crane our necks Say, Did you see that? I see inside the spiral that never Unwinds until it does does rewind All over the innocent A victim of myself […]
Pause
I’m in that window of time before I leap into something new and it’s all I can write about right now. If I think long enough about this pause, I see all the pauses before me. The few weeks I lived with my parents at age 24, before I moved to Seattle. Going to many […]
Ghost Me
Ghost Me by Nancy Schatz Alton For Peter I am all the people who are no longer here Even as I am not How could I be? Yet I am a ghost Yet I call your ghost I call your river-rock-climbing body back From the grave From the rail line From the box car From […]
Writer’s Block
I have blog writer’s block today. I think it comes from standing between two places. I mean, we are always standing between the past and the present. But I feel that space in a deeper way as I listen to the washing machine dry our clothes. As the sunlight pours in my office window. For […]