SageGreenJournal.org voices out of the West, mostly poetry, personal to planetary...
John Nizalowski
Grand Junction, Colorado
Born and raised in upstate New York, John Nizalowski moved to Santa Fe in the mid-1980’s and has ever after lived west of the 100th meridian. He is the author of four books: a multi-genre work entitled Hooking the Sun; two collections of poetry, The Last Matinée and East of Kayenta; and Land of Cinnamon Sun, a volume of essays. Nizalowski has also published widely in a variety of literary journals, most notably Under the Sun, Malpais, Weber Studies, Puerto del Sol, Slab, Measure, Digital Americana, and Blue Mesa Review. Currently, he teaches creative writing, composition, and mythology at Colorado Mesa University. His blog, Dispatches from the Land of Cinnamon Sun, can be found at http://johnnizalowski.blogspot.com
August
(for Kyle Harvey)
A month that
is always red
and gold dust.
It is named for
the rust wheat
emperor. Orpheus
singing a for-
bidden ballad
to the many dead.
Forty-nine days
past the solstice,
the gods have
returned to the
sacred mountain.
Sunflowers bend
under lightning, a
jagged snake strikes
the Uncompahgre
Plateau. Canyons
flow with blood-
red water, the silt
of the ancients.
Gibbous moon
occulted by fierce
clouds, the voice
of the Sun Father
finding fault with
the Fifth World.
The toads call out
to Cancer the Crab,
sent by Hera to
slay Heracles,
Warrior Twin.
The Ute shaman
stay calm in their
brush arbors to the
north, eagle-wing
fans a shield against
the assault from
above. Antelope
hide under centuries
old pine and junipers.
A wild horse runs
in Unaweep Canyon,
and I watch the skies,
anticipating storms.
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