Poetry

Pretentious Obliquity

Poems by Richard Brigman

Penned musings should be perspicuous,

not wax from wearing to odious.

Ever vigilant be

to prevail oe ennui.

Clarity's not incommodious.

Creamsicle Farewell

By Richard Brigman

The rising sun treats

Our flight from JuNeaU

To creamsicle glaze

On Heintzelman snow

Discurse

Some discourse can be

Dull boring patter.

While words we've eschewed

As being too crude

Get right to the crux of the matter.

Past Be Gone

Be gone pale past

with host of swarming sorrow.

I'll tread today

alone and pray

for joy upon the morrow.

Pixie Dance

On the translucent screen

of my time-battered lids,

a thousand pixeled pixies pirouette

in Brownian ballet.

In the dark near beyond,

a luminous pinpoint

explodes into radiant white pulsar

with gauzy corona.

I marvel helplessly

as each pixie twinkles

to the pulsing heart of oblivion

in a sparkling spiral.

I feel but cannot grasp

my age-bedazzled soul,

craving timeless peace and absolving grace,

implore the singular.

Then racked by ancient fears,

my dull myopic mind

quails before the immutable presence

and I open my eyes.

Artists on Kluane Shore

Poems by Richard Stokes

Drifting across turquoise waters,

mountains of greens and yellows,

rock looming against blue sky

splashed with bruised clouds,

all sweep over easels set

among sheltering cottonwoods,

resonate in artistic hearts,

re-form and settle gently

on waiting canvasses.

Midnight Magic

Blemishes on the skin of the frozen lake

snare silver from the full moon, light

hundreds of elfin lanterns.

Paired Plows

Orange mechanical monsters

nose to tail like beasts in rut

rumble down dark roads

teeth scraping sparks

and spewing over rails

great rooster-tails of snow.

For the Sake of this Moment

By Katie Bausler

What if you had traveled toward them your entire life, only to find this moon at the end?

- "The Mountains" from For the Sake of the Light by Tom Sexton (page 191)

I sit in late February light,

but the café window

separates me

from the warmth

I've craved since October.

Your poem about

the mountains and moon shining

inspiring my sigh.

I face the sunlight

flooding the table,

illuminating bay and mountains.

And with gratitude,

rest my eyes.

• Note: Tom Sexton is a former Alaska Poet Laureate, 1995.

The World is Ending

By Randall Mueca

The world is ending,

At least the stars are out tonight

The school musical begins but no one is attending.

Jeannie Slater has a voice but stage fright,

At least the stars are out tonight,

She wonders where they've been,

Jeannie Slater has a voice but stage fright.

The fate of humanity looks mighty grim,

She wonders where they've been-

The moon is crumbling and falling to earth.

The fate of humanity looks mighty grim,

In a split second she questions what are we worth?

The moon is crumbling and falling to earth

The school musical begins but no one is attending.

In a split second she questions what are we worth?

The world is ending.