Welcome to WNIJ's Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. Today's segment features poems by Jan Bristol.
Bristol is a native of Carroll County, Illinois who says she has Mississippi River in her blood. She spent many years in Colorado, but came back home, to what she describes as "along the river and palisades." Bristol retired from the aerospace industry and is also a member of the writers' group E-town Scribes.
Here are two of Bristol's untitled short poems.
Untitled 1
I remember when
you wove beauty from the sky
in purple hues and bands of green
and gold,
A woman of passion and fire,
who painted the Sangres, who drank
deeply from mountain streams.
I long to see you take up
your brushes and your loom once again,
old friend.
The West has become a faded memory
behind your eyes.
Banked fires hold the heat
of youth,
of memory and desire...
You live now among green hills
and fields unbroken by time
Driftless
in a cocoon of memory'
mute, with tales untold.
Untitled 2
A ghost-eyed dog
trots across an open field
lately crew-cut of its corn,
brown stubble and rich clay exposed
Plump gray clouds hoist their heavy sails
into a southwest wind.
The barometer drops.
An empty rocker on the porch
keeps time as a pair of red-tailed hawks ride the
thermals.
It is deep down in the fall
and we hunker down with strong
hot coffee,
anticipating the coming winter
and hoping for the best
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
