Cachagua Road From the low bridge over the river you spoke,blue lupines rising silently beneath the oaks,weighed with the damp of evening.Your words were carried away downstream,lost to me. I felt a sadness,heavy as stones.I listen—bending of waterover rocks, wind in the armsof the trees. I’ve learned the voicesof the robin, the towhee,thrasher—useless except forthe [...]
DARK STAR I had not expected, mid-life,that already my shining yearswould be behind me, tradedfor more essential things:what it meansto have patience,to wage a war,how to endure. I remember clearer now:the smooth dunes,bare shoulders,my body feeling somehowless bound, belongingto me. You came outof the sea—salt on skin.In a particular way,your face openedbeneath the midday sky.Those [...]
In Measures, B. L. Bruce’s third collection of poetry, the author deftly explores grief, loss, the visual measures of time, and the nature of change in her celebrated, nuanced verse. In this latest collection featuring nearly sixty new poems—including works in new formats like micropoetry and American haiku—award-winning poet B. L. Bruce again echoes the [...]
Throwback to my two poems, "The Leaving" and "Fragility," which appear in my award-winning collection The Weight of Snow, first published in The 2River View. THE LEAVING By the heavy glass doors,you kneel to gather scattered clothes,your naked silhouette a shadowagainst the violet dawn.I know this shape your body makesagainst the sky. A leaf falls [...]
I drop a glove in the puddle of rainwater,and bending to remove itsee the reflection of my mother's figure,see the levy of years--the unexpected wither of skinas if waking to seethat it has snowedovernight. c. B. L. Bruce From "At Henry Cowell State Park, Early Winter" from my award-winning collection "The Weight of Snow," first [...]
Life in isolation during the coronavirus pandemic got me thinking of the time I spent 28 days in a small cabin in the remote forests of Northern California. I wrote about my time there, reflecting on the writing process, in my short memoir "28 Days of Solitude." Check out the newly refreshed edition, available now [...]
NORTH For a moment in the calm,between gusts of wind:the faint push of air beneath wing.The northern harrier drifts abovea flowering field of yellow mustard. Bobbing among the eddies,the murre learn centuriesof the waterwork and currents,driven unthinking by whatwe cannot know. Farther still, the north horizonis choked with fog;the clover lies trampled by salt windalong [...]
Lightning flickers over the Santa Lucia Mountains.Stretching past the tideline, the swollen moondances in the dark bay--I think of Li Poon the bank of the Yangtze River.Perhaps he, too, saw a woman lying bare, shiveringin the cold. c. B. L. BruceExcerpt from The Weight of Snow
More autumn months graced by frost,the flowering quince dies. I set outto walk the edge of the woods,think of all the pleasures in being alone. c. B. L. BruceFirst published by the Soundings Review PURCHASE COLLECTION Follow B. L. Bruce Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepoesis/Twitter: https://twitter.com/the_poesis
The Remnant Archive AUTUMN 2020 ISSUE The Remnant Archive is an online journal comprising features on literature, art and history. READ THE ISSUE > When I Die When I die, burn my body. I hope to leave with you— among other things—a sort of fury, enough for you to imagine me beating the ground with [...]
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