BAY AREA POETS REVIEW 

The Fall issue, 2010, was our last printed issue. As of Summer 2011, we are only publishing on the World Wide Web due to printing costs and lack of funding. We do not take money from any government or corporate sponsor, but welcome your donations to keep us going. You can send us your snail-mail letters and checks to Jannie Dresser, BAY AREA POETS REVIEW at the address at right. Please make your donation out to Jannie Dresser: Bank of America closed our business account due to lack of funds!

Flowers for Robert Bly
On Reading The Sibling Society

Once more, Robert Bly, you have disturbed the soil of my soul.

Once more, you have aimed your harrow
Straight down the row my mule hauled it.

Listen to me, old man, cranky as a child,
Once more you have done your job
And your duty with your story of the stories.

I know you take a look at these wayside flowers,
But pick them not.

One hand, and the plough aim falters.
Still, here they are, old man. Praise
And Thanks are their names. Pass by, ploughman,
Furrow on, in the fabulous dirt that is us.
                                              --Bruce Moody (Crockett)
Fountain at the Dead Fish Restaurant in Crockett (photo by Jannie Dresser)


There are two ways to reach us:

BAY AREA POETS REVIEW

1164 Solano Ave. #140

Albany, CA 94706

You can email to poetsreview@gmail.com

Shadow

But then here are the blue iris and they
won’t not be seen. A message brought
by ten a.m. as it remembers dawn.
No defense nor explanation, the smooth
blue curves same as the taste of apple   pie.
Yes, sun’s already hot but the garden
shimmers as it sings its song. Sound in
the cracks of tree bark, sound in elm leaves’ rub.
Daytime moon, painted silence. Butterfly,
blackberry vine, invitation to snapdragon
to bask in the jewels of its fake wings.
Everything casts its shadow, darker,
leaner shapes that spell the letters
of things back to themselves.

--Grace Marie Grafton (Oakland)

Albany apartment complex near Highway 80