I had the wonderful opportunity to read my poem, Weather Report on Orange, on the radio thanks to Vashon Island Poet Laureate Margaret Roncone. “Return to Light” features 10 island poets and will be broadcast at 12 o’clock noon on the Winter Solstice, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023. I am grateful to Margaret, the other poets, and show host, Susan McCabe for this fun opportunity!

The winter solstice is a time for reflection and appreciation of the season, so give yourself a moment of quiet joy during this busy time and tune into KVSH. You can find it online at Voice of Vashon. The show will be available to listen to on the website for 2 weeks. After that, poof!

If you are reading this post after the timeframe has past, you can still read it here:

Weather Report on Orange

I haven’t had this feeling

            since last year’s tuba storm

trapped me into a shiny brass basement.

            There was a pot-bellied stove,

grandmother’s knitting and orange

            & cinnamon in the air. But it always amazes me

that you never telephone or write

            except for those mass e-mailings

from whatever country you’re living in

            now. It seems warm along the canals

of your lingual throat. And like jetties

            from other dialects, you spin wherever you go.

I haven’t felt this nourished since

            last season’s mandarin & satsuma

traced my navel to my thighs

            like a street only fruit could drive through.

I’d travel the cobblestone of lost centuries

            to find my way back to you. Hang my arms

upon your arms as if to dry them in some heat

            only we create…yes, it is the season of orange

& I’m burning the pulp of possibility,

            the patience of gestation, the crockery of stewing

is brewing in me now. I haven’t stirred this soup

            since last year’s squash quiche serpentined

my intestines. It was a good meal

            & I’m pleased to remember it with you. Its

the season for plugging in

            & blowing a fuse…the season of candles

that light themselves…the weather for small suns

            to be stored in a basket            that I reach for

into my palm that I shall pass into your palm

            & in that moment, in its small darkening curve

we shall ride that line together on an equator.