1
Winter arrives here
with spears of rain thrown
out of the black wool sky
We wait months for this
A thanks for the giving
or a gift pooled under the trees
Roots beneath swell strong
mapping out next year’s
abundant fruit harvests
Swans and snow geese
arrive in a feathered blizzard
to suckle leftovers of rice fields
The sky white a while with
thunder of flight
the touch and go of instinct
2
Poems emerge as dried seed pods
collected in pockets
from hikes too long ago
Was it the opus of younger years
those trails climbing green
past the embryo of waterfall
Birds trilling in shrubs
while you were yards ahead
and I ached behind
Or is it just winter coming
when you opt out
of paths that were lifelines
I await the coming storms
that bring coolness and exploration
New trails that begin and end with you
-
Diane Funston co-founded a women’s poetry salon in San Diego, created a weekly poetry gathering in the high desert town of Tehachapi, CA and most recently has been the Yuba-Sutter Arts and Culture Poet-in-Residence for the past two years. It is in this role she created Poetry Square, a monthly online venue that features poets from all the world reading their work and discussing creative process. She has been published in Last Stanza, Synkronicity, California Quarterly, Whirlwind, San Diego Poetry Annual, Summation, Tule Review, Lake Affect Magazine, Meat for Tea, and other literary journals. Her first chapbook, Over the Falls was published this July 2022 from Foothills Publishing. Diane is also a visual artist in mosaic, wool felting, and collage. Her pieces have been in galleries in the Sacramento Valley.
