Issue > Poetry
Sheila Packa

Sheila Packa

Sheila Packa is the author of a book of poems, The Mother Tongue, published by Calyx Press Duluth, 2007. She has also published poems, short fiction, and essays in literary magazines. Her work is anthologized in Finnish-North American Literature in English (Mellen Press, 2009). She does spoken-word performance with cellist Kathy McTavish. Sheila lives in northern Minnesota.

Boundary Waters

Off the road
where lichen and thick moss
take in minerals
beneath the balsam
over the border
past the landing
in the stone face of granite
above the water's mirror
small islands where
root dives into stone
amid broken limbs
of white pine
behind the reflection of day
into dark endings
reached for my own reaching
hand in the cold water
of October—
a tail flick of a fin
among the sunken
shoulders
in a vein of ore.
To take from another body
is a question
answered by loon
or by the morning rime
with weasel
searching the char of a cold fire.
After the urgent
animal of the body—
a heavy frost
and the moose that trod
over our path
running, hunted.

Poetry

Dara Barnat

Dara Barnat
What Happens Before Anything

Poetry

Lisa Hiton

Lisa Hiton
Compression Wood

Poetry

Karen Steinmetz

Karen Steinmetz
Partita