Kelp, Monterey Bay
stranding, the underwater-forest
sways like thin torsos
upheld by air-sacs
artificial currents plumped in:
kelp plants tidal
yellow-brown can grow sixty feet tall
hollow tubes and linked leaves
sway up sway back
light-shafts through green
illuminate the forest animals
fish-wolves
fish-rabbits
fish-mice
shrimp-beetles
a single sunfish-cow
& monster bottom feeders
both eyes on one side of their heads
which you won't find
at the base of land-trees
though I have seen them in government
Folded Wings
cool forest scratching
past blackberries
dried-out blackfruit
poison oak sticks
plenty of resin left
eucalyptus canopy high
many branches wreaths
of lace-leaves hanging
here and there
one leaf flies up
throw a stick
they rise confetti
in an upside-down world
orange shineblack bodies
from twiggy cities
their light-flutters
monarchs
return to dust-green
pale sky
folds again to gray
day after day
obedient to my nature
I throw my stick
obedient to theirs
flashup
at Henry Cowell Park
ticks kick from the bushes onto the fur
the soft fur they can smell in the old heat
above the petrichoric path
dim sounds of hollow wood clacking
not like your light music why are you
about to explode night is spacious
spotlit why do you writhe who is he
hard against a tree when dew comes
drawn to his hunt no one to hear
the sounds you make at his festival
which has suddenly erupted in a clearing
but celebrate: an angel has spun down on silk
eight-legged. you grimace like a gale
or girl you want to know something cold
that will have to be torn from your casing
damaging but you slice open your chest
willingly to the mess in there
Pinnacles
as we walk these hills
gilding with the progress of spring
silent, only the windy grasses
a-slink with snakes, creeping with coyotes,
above
no disturbance
in the transparence,
the land draws out our poisons
the clay is edible, the insects
offer themselves up.
these hills
are bread
with the property of wholesomeness.
these cold springs
shock us back .
we drink gullyfuls.
About The Writer Pam O'Shaughnessy is a Santa Cruz poet. These poems are from her collection of poems, Figments, published in 2013 by Laika Press.
The Outdoor Poet is edited by Robert Sward, author of numerous books of poetry including, most recently, New and Selected Poems: 1957-2011 (Red Hen Press). He lives on the Westside with his wife, the artist Gloria Alford, and a poodle mix named Cosette. Participation in The Outdoor Poet is by invitation.
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