Somewhere in This World
by Gail Harada
anything is possible.
ʻŌhiʻa lehua might take root in black lava
or high on a windy cliff
with blossoms beautiful as the perfect velvet-red rose.
New leaves after devastation
might emerge thicker and more verdant than before.
A native hibiscus, kokiʻo keʻokeʻo,
growing in a schoolyard
might unfurl its delicately fragrant petals
one ordinary morning as traffic merges on the freeway.
A mountain might stand more majestic
Adorned again with stories told in the reborn air.
Gail N. Harada was born in Honolulu and spent part of her childhood on a military base in Japan. She has a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In 2000, she won a Pushcart Prize for her poem “A Meditation.” She is the author of a collection of poems and stories, BEYOND GREEN TEA AND GRAPEFRUIT (Bamboo Ridge 2013). She teaches writing and literature at Kapi‘olani Community College. Find out more about her books at www.bambooridge.com.
Birthday
by Sue Cowing
A poem is a baby slowly forming
in the fluid inner world:
toes out of nowhere,
eyelashes out of heartbeat.
Like a dolphin, born tail-first
so it won’t drown
in a world of water.
Then someone, is it the mother?
nudges it to the surface, crooning
breathe now, breathe.
[gn_divider]
Kōnane
by Sue Cowing
At Kaʻena, fire and waterline up their stones
dull black lavaround white coral
for the island’s oldest kōnane gamemoves so slow
the stones are all we see.
Sue Cowing is a local author active in the Hawaiʻi literary community. Her latest work is a middle-grade novel You Will Call Me Drog. Birthday was originally published in Bamboo Ridge.
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