Anne Mitchell's newest collection of poetry is now available in a chapbook from Kelsay Books and Amazon.com. Cover photo: Martha Casanave.

Sky of Lapis frothed clouds sail in with the west wind, valley heat teases sea. Chaised, gaze up at old pine tower, thank him for roots...

I’d like to meet those empty nest planets out there, perhaps rifling through the fledglings’ things left behind, their first big bang and...

In Pacific Grove, mint pastel cottages line the seaside streets. Deer families stroll through backyards, on sidewalks. Pre-teen white...

Any old day on the job, our clients may bite into their last meal, perhaps choking on the shrimp stir-fry, that final home delivery,...

Once, in a flower market in Jakarta, surrounded by intoxicant hues, perfumed in frangipani, among mounds of rose petal baskets, I found a...

I’d like to write poems with Billy Collins, invite him to sit next to me on the center beam of the redwood eaves crisscrossing my living...

A 100-year-old hotel, glows mauve, sunset bounces light up from Carmel beach-a W.P.A. mural greets me, Austrian coats of arms, Dirndls...

Before you reach for the hand of grace you must shed skin. Sense all comfort molt from shattered cells like needles from a dead pine in...

Rue nothing. Not the yellow jacket Cliff’s Notes skimmed In place of The Scarlet Letter, not the TV Cinderella you sang along with to be...

Fog so low it kisses the artichoke blooms, hovers over a snaking traffic jam of field workers, white school busses off-load into the...

I run my fingers along the scalloped, frayed photo, touch the rough edge my father held when he jotted my name on the back side with his...

Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art—John Keats At two a.m. I ponder Sonnet’s art- a form meets torment, to love eon’s night,...

When days equal night and the air is crisp, sand etches tides into swirls and I breathe ferment of apples and hungry wasps’ wisp, before...

“The Queen’s bees have been informed of her death” “Please stay”, he begs of the broods while wrapping them in black satin ribbons, bows...

thick fog morphs soft rain distant cats yowl mate or fight voyeur gulls cackle redhead woodpeckers hula dance mist off feathers phone...

There’s the story of me sitting in the grass in the dark on a lounge of rattan, hot chocolate in hand. Aumakua-Pueo, Hawaiian Owl,...

Life will not always go your way. The bees will disappear from the hive in your garden and your orange Tomcat will wander off to die...

Don’t you wonder if they will ever slow down, images bouncing round in your mind, popcorn maker, dimes in a coke can to ward off...