Mirror NorthWest

James Bertolino

THE FAMILY SEDAN

There was a stone,
a boulder in your youth

larger than the family sedan.
There was a moment when, after

you had climbed to the top, you thought
“some year, when I am older, I will remember

this rock, and will know this as the last
time my mind was clear.”

SEE WILLOW: A PANTOUM

At last you’ll know why you came.
See willow. Feel willow.
Hold to the proof of loons.
This day is like no other.

See willow. Feel willow.
Feel the slender spirit of the reeds.
This day is like no other.
Step wisely along the stones.

Feel the slender spirit of the reeds.
There are crows discussing the moon.
Step wisely along the stones.
The towhee says believe.

There are crows discussing the moon.
Feel wind inside the cedar.
The towhee says believe.
A star descends and everything rises.

Feel wind inside the cedar.
Hold to the proof of loons.
A star descends and everything rises.
At last you know why you came.

CONTRIBUTOR

James Bertolino’s poetry has been appearing in Ploughshares, Poetry, Notre Dame Review, Indiana Review, Partisan Review, Florida Quarterly, Beloit Poetry Journal, Raven Chronicles, StringTown, Cranky and Crab Creek Review. Nine volumes and fourteen chapbooks of his poetry and prose have been published by such presses as Copper Canyon, Carnegie Mellon, New Rivers, Ithaca House and the Quarterly Review of Literature Award Series. Two of his out-of-print books have been reprinted by the Connecticut College Contemporary American Poetry Archive. He has taught creative writing at Cornell, Washington State, University of Cincinnati, Willamette University and currently at Western Washington University. Recent anthologies from Harper Collins, University of Utah Press, University of Akron Press, Doubleday, The Nation Books and Evergreen State College have reprinted his poetry. His latest volume is Pocket Animals: 60 Poems, published in 2002 by Egress Studio Press. It was the best-selling poetry book by a Northwest author in 2003 at Village Books in Bellingham.