Snow petals ghost
the northern wind.

Among wild plums
my father’s face kites

in wickerwork limbs
gray-eyed, trapped,

no escape as trains
huff roadside tracks.

Within twist of this,
a flounce of cold chill.

Beneath, below, within—
where does he anchor?

—

Denise Low, Kansas Poet Laureate 2007-09, is author of over 30 books of poetry and prose. Forward Reviews writes of her memoir The Turtle’s Beating Heart: One Family’s Story of Lenape Survival: “An accomplished poet, Low’s well-honed prose flows with lyric intensity.” American Book Review wrote of her Jackalope: “an engaging and humorous read, one that reveals a great deal about the parallel, contemporary Native America that exists and thrives in ways largely invisible to many other Americans.” She teaches for Baker University’s School of Professional and Graduate Studies. She has won three Kansas Notable Book Awards and has recognition from Seaton Prizes, Pami Jurassi Bush Award of the Academy of American Poets, Roberts Prize, and the Lichtor Poetry Prize. Low has an MFA (Wichita State U.) and Ph.D. (Kansas U.). The Associated Writers and Writing Programs, national creative academic programs and independent writers, selected her to serve as board president. She is on their Inclusivity Committee and is a contributing editor of The Writer’s Chronicle.

Also enjoy my interview with Denise Low  and her poem “Remembering Monk, 1966”