Karen Lewis

Karen Lewis writes poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Some of her work has appeared in FACES, APPLESEEDS, HIP MAMA, INSTANT CITY and a variety of literary anthologies. Karen grew up in Los Angeles County, studied at Mount Holyoke College, and graduated from Stanford with a degree in Urban Studies. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. Karen began working with California Poets in the Schools in 1996. Since then, she has led hundreds of workshops K-12th grade classrooms in Mendocino County. She offers students tools for creative writing and imaginative thinking. She also teaches creative writing in the community and at College of the Redwoods.

Melting Moon

March 2011

When the torn moon appeared,
frogs shaped song from winter’s dark mud.
Geese  touched us with their echoes, each
voice sharp
like an arrow pointing west.
           
We were warm by our fire.
One dog howled, a newborn
wailed, and in the house
we argued about ridiculous, trivial
nothings. While rain splattered
            our rooftop. The radio blared bad news.

Fukushima. Fukushima. Fukushima: we wept, while
you leaked plutonium. A puzzle
            cast from molten, desperate mistakes could
not be sorted out.
           
            Rivers called salmon to swim
            upstream and their flesh turned
            to flames. More salmon swam,

and we warmed ourselves indoors,
and prayed for loved ones.
I wondered,
is it enough to plant lettuce seeds,
to write this poem? How we love,

even a weary, torn moon,
that always disappears
behind smoke
from our fires.

Summer Silhouette

Yellow blossoms covered traces
  of ash and chert
on the trail where
  he led us
to his secret swimming hole.

  We wanted to escape
    summer’s heat and
ordinary schedules.

  One daughter screamed
    in the language of osprey
and the other whispered
  to a brown turtle the size of her fist.

Brown turtle crawled across our path
  and disappeared
     into the wild river.

Gray osprey soared
    to a branch-built nest
  on top of a lightning-snagged fir.

Both daughters splashed
  into the river shallows
pursued by effervescent bubble-song.

My husband plunged in after, to keep them safe,
  while I wove a poem
            from yellow
    blossoms and

sweet summer mud.

by Karen Lewis

Word Dance

With each word written, each attempt to fill space, some new smudge of sacred prayer arrives. Each word takes flight, to join its long lost sibling-words. Words collide at such distances that every language mingles, morphs and joins an all-encompassing butterfly day dance, triumphantly unchained from the long silver history of apartheid and intolerance. Across time zones, across waves of salt and sand, over mountaintops, the heart beats out its red nectar, leaving no more footprints, only traces of
                                                ink—that
                                                            might
                                                cross
                                                            borders.
Hollow silences follow a song or a prayer. Light the candles now. May the winter wind lift and cleanse each spirit. Let fingers find courage to scribe some sweet words for bitter times. Let us write the future clean.

~Karen Lewis

SCHOOLS & COMMUNITY______________________
Comptche School
Dana Grey Elementary
Albion School
Mendocino K-8 School
Mendocino Community HS
Fort Bragg HS


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