2009 Poetry Contest Third Place Thanksgiving, 2009 Munich, Germany “For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord.” 1 Samuel 1:27-28 She wept [...]
Fifth Anniversary Issue 2010, Poetry
Hannah
by Melissa Dalton-Bradford
Early Harvest
by Melissa Dalton-Bradford
Midsummer. Eventide. Live waters. You: broad-backed bundle of golden sheaves hewn down, washed, rushed headlong through death’s threshing current. You: pre-ripe, holy harvest wrested from these, your people; gathered to those, your people who attend from iridescent pastures. You: Firstborn son, First fruits of my womb, Firstling of our flock, First raised of [...]
Falls, Gardens, Deaths
by Adam Greenwood
HE SAYS IN NEW MEXICO the weeks before Thanksgiving are High Fall, autumn in abundance, all bright colors and fruits. Thanksgiving is the high point of that season, and also its end. Then it’s whooping crane season, Christmas, and winter. In the weeks before Thanksgiving the cottonwood leaves turned bright pumpkin yellow. We were driving along [...]
Too Late to Say Good-bye
by Dalene R. Rowley
THE SPAGHETTI NOODLES always arrived from Portland in a two-foot long box, carefully curled in half at one end, which made it just possible to ease them slowly into the rapidly boiling water and cook them whole. We never ate them whole except when we had the missionaries over for dinner. It was Dad’s favorite way [...]
And Should We Die—All Is Well: Doctrines to Comfort Grieving Parents on the Mormon Trail
by Patricia Rushton
“In 1847 Jedediah Grant led a company of Latter-day Saint pioneers from Winter Quarters, Nebraska, to the Salt Lake Valley. Not long before the company arrived in the valley, his six-month-old daughter, Margaret, contracted cholera and died. Her body was buried close to the trail, protected by only a mound of freshly dug clay. Soon [...]
Hands
by Valerie Nielson Williams
I walked into the room where you were; You looked so peaceful, resting there. So natural, like you’d looked many times over the two decades I’d watched you sleep. I leaned over and kissed your lips still warm, But not reciprocating now. I smoothed your snow-white hair with my hand. By small measure my heart [...]
Somewhere
by Sharlee Mullins Glenn
She strains toward heaven arms outstretched like a child wanting to be held then falls back, outspent subdued by gravity’s ponderous sway How long must she stay suspended as she is between fire and air between here and there incarnation and release? Do not rage, mother (leave the raging to the poet and his father, [...]