Regina and Tim Gort's first collection of poetry,Year of the White Tiger, is a chapbook of collabortive poems. Now available from Two Timbers Press.
Poetry is a House
For William Stafford
(After "One Home")
Ours is a North Coast home -a house we share.
Sandstone shoes walk the thoughts that make our creed.
We dance to made-up songs;
the floor is our table.
The hand-made jam labels
we paste on mason jars
mark the dates we store in cupboards-
outside, the Indian paintbrushes
and pine grosbeaks in the morning.
A mother black bear lunged at us
in a September dusk while we
were creek-water sneaking before
our children pulled a blanket
of Northern Lights overhead.
To anyone who looks at us
we say "Come in";
liking the ax handle of invitation,
we could say "Welcome."
(But sandstone shoes walk the thoughts that make our creed.)
The sunrise over Superior
is the tooth of a saw.
Circling our arms we swim
against the north winds.
As published in North Dakota Quarterly, Volume 79.2