A selection from The Strait by Andrew Jarvis, finalist for the 2014 Homebound Publications Poetry Prize. The Strait explores sensory experiences gleamed from the natural environment, historic traditions, archaeological findings, and folklore of the Pacific Northwest. Jarvis presents a spiritual and honest landscape rich with images and metaphors that define our place in this beautiful, multicultural world and what it means to be human. The poems move from mystical shores to haunting woodlands, a multifaceted exploration of the imaginary and the real.
Snoqualmie
It means the moon, and the Salish
were born in this river of beams,
people painted in water light.
In winter, you can crack the ice
and eat the red berries below,
the ones that fix your eyes on them.
One girl itches for a finding,
the luminous sweets of riverbanks,
enough to bake in morning sun.
She wants to break her fingers off
with no pinecone for an ice pick,
a crying moon child freezing in night.
It will forever fall this way,
the stifled stream of ice piercing
the fruitless thumbs of twilight girl.
The Strait
Poems by Andrew Jarvis
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