SageGreenJournal.org

voices out of the West, mostly poetry, personal to planetary

John Nizalowski

Grand Junction, Colorado

August

Born and raised in upstate New York, John Nizalowski moved to Santa Fe in the mid-1980’s and has ever after lived west of the 100th meridian. He is the author of four books: a multi-genre work entitled 

Hooking the Sun; two collections of poetry, The Last Matinée and East of Kayenta; and Land of Cinnamon Sun, a volume of essays. Nizalowski has also published widely in a variety of literary journals, most notably Under the Sun, Malpais,

Weber Studies, Puerto del Sol, Slab, 

Measure, Digital Americana, and 

Blue Mesa Review. Currently, he teaches creative writing, composition, and mythology at Colorado Mesa University. His blog, Dispatches from the Land of Cinnamon Sun, can be found at 

http://johnnizalowski.blogspot.com

 (for Kyle Harvey)

A month that

is always red

and gold dust.

It is named for

the rust wheat

emperor. Orpheus

singing a for-

bidden ballad

to the many dead.

Forty-nine days

past the solstice,

the gods have

returned to the

sacred mountain.

Sunflowers bend

under lightning, a

jagged snake strikes

the Uncompahgre

Plateau. Canyons

flow with blood-

red water, the silt

of the ancients.

Gibbous moon

occulted by fierce

clouds, the voice

of the Sun Father

finding fault with

the Fifth World.

The toads call out

to Cancer the Crab,

sent by Hera to

slay Heracles,

Warrior Twin.

The Ute shaman

stay calm in their

brush arbors to the

north, eagle-wing

fans a shield against

the assault from

above. Antelope

hide under centuries

old pine and junipers.

A wild horse runs

in Unaweep Canyon,

and I watch the skies,

anticipating storms.

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