bell jar

i walked  the path today
heavy with oak leaves

stumbling on the hidden rocks
i made my way down the hill

through purple asters poking
up  through autumn brown

at the waterfall I sat
on the black boulders jutting

out from tired grass and  built
a small fire in the circle of stones

starting it with bundled sage
seemed perfect for this october

smoke signals chased old demons
beckoned absent angels home

as it weaved through old growth  cedar
touched the tail of  a turkey buzzard

making his rounds

when the fire turned to ash I sat
listening to the moment trapped

in a bell jar and it was beautiful

Visitation by MK Chavez

Review of Visitation by MK Chavez:  Kendra Steiner Editions  #90
By Scot Young

I have found over the years there are poets that influence.  Poets that spark something we may not even be aware of.  MK Chavez is both of those. I began reading her on the recommendation of William Taylor Jr.  In Visitation, Chavez has another winner.  This time it comes from Kendra Steiner Editions. This chap is definitely one to add to your collection.  The chap’s cover is a picture of an old school deserted hospital, the kind where cries are heard down the hall right before the orderlies are called.  Visitation is a chap length poem in eight parts written in 14 point font that is unusually justified right to the paper.  This contributes to the same unanswered question haunting the adult speaker that haunted the child.  It holds the same feeling one gets when the phone rings at 3 a.m. and you never answer it.

I’ve been looking for the monster
that ate my mother, the one
that’s left me bleeding.  The one
I run from everyday

Chavez tells a story that begins in the gut and hangs there like waiting for the day the ringing stops.