Issue #33, June, 2003 : -- -1 -2 -3 4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -10 -11 -12
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Linda Monacelli-Johnson: Vigil

22 Defiant butter- fly, redundantly yellow, smears the grim storm cloud. ¤ Ascending from the riverbank woods with my haiku, I repeat it in my head as I approach the mammoth rock that juts over the river. My arrival flushes from below the overlook a kingfisher! I'm so high that I'm looking down at this halcyon-- the first kingfisher I've ever seen! Flapping upstream too fast for me to see the crest, the startled bird does flash blue and white, a semaphore. ¤ Trying to compose myself, I perch on the rock and scratch notes to check back home. Did I really get my wish? Now I want a better look. Hoping the bird will return, I scan the overcast. The air is very calm.

Pink Granite (detail) Whitman Johnson full image

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Issue #33, June, 2003 :
Santa Fe Poetry Broadside.