The following poems are included in a new anthology of poems written by over 30 Vashon poets, and edited by Jeanie Okimoto of Endicott and Hugh Books.
The book is called “Grief Age Love: Poems for the Autumn Years.”
Jeanie Okimoto writes in the Introduction “…As we all make our way in this broken world, the poets in this collection have traveled wide stretches of the human terrain….they offer a rich quilt of emotions and experiences. Many have been published extensively, and others turn to poetry on certain occasions when the muse shows up and the spirit moves them… as in the words of the Irish poet Brendan Kennedy, ‘poetry is one of the most vital treasures that humanity possesses; it is the bridge between separate souls.’”
In these times of deep division there is also a deep need for human connection. Love and Age and Grief are themes of experience for all seasons.
The Loop will print a few poems from this anthology during the Autumn and Winter seasons. This book is available at the Vashon Bookshop and Vashon Senior Center. All proceeds will be donated to the Vashon Senior Center.
Autumn
My small hands inside a tangle
of wet strings, a music I could hear
with the cacophony of seeds,
seven years old in the sharp crimson
of late October,
in a frenzy of wonder
and the sadness
that comes to certain children
as if they already know
the taste of loss.
It was the one thing my father did
with me, each Halloween
when the leafsmoke sang
itself into the dusk,
he took me to choose
the pumpkins,
at Panazzo Brother’s fruit stand,
they dazzled the chill Midwest evening
heaped in a bin like autumn full moons.
We scraped and carved them
into another life, grinning
and grimacing. Then the excitement,
placing the warm-breathed beings,
flamed from within
on the front porch.
This is the one tiny pocket
in any costume I wear
in which I carry my father,
the small flicker of memory, still alight.
Merna Ann Hecht
Merna Ann Hecht is a Teaching Artist, Poet and Storyteller who works with global youth. Also an organic gardener, baker and immigrant rights activist, she still loves Autumn and Halloween best of all.
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Michael Feinstein is a writer and poet living on Vashon Island.
