Poems by Ken Pobo
Archives: by Issue | by Author Name
Clear Cutting
by Ken Pobo
From Canary Summer 2012
Ken lives in the Lower Delaware River watershed in southeastern Pennsylvania.
A forest walk--we find
a stride, smell last winter
on dead leaves. Trees
block some sky but the sun,
on gold stilts, walks
in clearings. Driving home
we pass stumps,
busted branches. A forest
gutted. Ghosts of pines
and birches search for where
they left their roots.
© Ken Pobo
Hemlocks
by Ken Pobo
From Canary Fall 2016
Mom’s gone, the path full
of last autumn’s leaves
and her kindness. In the spring
forest, a stand of hemlocks
(growing when I was a kid)
almost 100 feet tall.
A black-throated green warbler
tends her nest. Gray bark,
as if November painted
the trees her favorite color.
Stillness. Pinecones
lump the forest floor,
soft needles under our shoes.
© Ken Pobo