“Congratulations Adrienne, You have been selected to be in the Sixty Four Best Poets of 2018 by the Black Mountain Press and The Halcyone Magazine editorial staff!” I’m so happy about this. Fellow writers will understand that after papering the walls of one’s study with rejection notices, publication is a treat…but to win a competition is, well, something entirely new for me. Profound thanks to Bruce Beasley for the editorial guidance and discerning questions which yielded my three winning poems. The poems in question “Solicitation,” “My Life as a Damascene Sword,” and ”When we Swam Together,” will be published at the end of January.

Ashes, Ashes Paradise is raining ash. Skies fill with blistered amber, lives upon lives swept up, flowing down California’s keening body, headed for the sea. Masked, we cough and grieve— our bodies do not want the weight of lives combusted, our bodies can not hold this reeking burden, charred. Place and its people, forest and its animals. Memories drift in shock. Stumbling. Riven. Here stands apocalypse— Paradise is lost. I wrote this during the Paradise, California fire, aka “The Camp Fire.” It was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history to date. It was also the deadliest wildfire in the United States since the Cloquet fire in 1918,…

Falling Silently I am the owl the mouse the snow the day Slain and slayer white and ruby fierce pride and panicked leap From “Poems, 2018” by Adrienne Asher

I spent a week in the woods at Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, taking a songwriting class from the illimitable Kathy Kallick. After a few writing prompts, I wrote a country song that’s about a woman who keeps walking away from the issues and events in her life: “It’s all because of boot heels on the road…” The chorus goes— Starlight, star bright Her skies are made for stormy weather Starlight, star bright, Her skies are made for rain I’ll post a recording if my sweetie’s ever happy with the music he’s written for it!