WATERMARK

a poet’s notebook

Established 02004

thaw

March 18, 2004

March Thaw, Juneau, Alaska

The first bear came down from the mountain today. Porcupines graze by the trail. The air tastes of the forest trying to bloom. Icicles melt, quick percussive drip off the eaves. On the high New Mexico desert, your ashes… Continue reading

Poems

march, poem, poetry, spring, thaw, winter
March 5, 2004

Thaw

Birch trees downed by beavers or storms lay their heads in slow water. Sparrows swarm into the tallest locust; spill down again, in a swell of sound. The rocky bank is patched with snow. An ice floe rolls in the undertow. My heart calls out to something unknown, an owl in its nest of sticks… Continue reading

Poems

free verse, poem, poetry, spring, thaw, winter

Ancestral (Artificial )Intelligence

I do not use AI to write. For me, writing is how I think, and I prefer to do it myself. If/when I post anything here that I suspect or know to be AI generated, I will tell you.

I have changed this from Artificial to Ancestral, after Abi Awomosu @ Substack. This medium was made with human history, human thought. All of it, bright and dark. It is ancestral.

Poems

Please do not assume that I am the speaker/ subject of my poems.

In these times of creative nonfiction and fictionalized memoirs, I think of the poem itself as true fiction: it is most likely not factual, but it must be true.

It is likely to be — it is best if it is — a truth I did not know before I wrote, and may not understand even then.

A poem is my way of discovering (dis-covering) what I feel; sometimes, what I think — but it is not necessarily biographical.

thaw

March Thaw, Juneau, Alaska

Thaw