AMANDA NIAMH DAWSON : 2025

WILD NIGHTS

On warm nights

My dog has taken to lying by the screen door in the bedroom

He listens and watches the darkness

He rises when the cat calls and hoopla of wild coyotes stab the stillness

Out into the night, we step together

The cackles haunt a deeper part of us - where we are not safe

Where we would be hunted

This dog knows I need him

His purpose, self-prescribed

Some evolution - away from the wildness

The retreating night returns to humming and leaf talk

He resumes his perch

Hearing the silent coyotes

Burrowing in their underground bunker a vineyard away

Wondering

Why they sound like him

And why he’s here with me

First published in Switching to ON!: The 2025 SebArts Writers Anthology AUG 2025 Wordrunner Press *print only

SONOMA MORNING

The thin air of summer

Drifts softly into view

The pine cones

Hang in clusters

Laced with warming dew

Brooms of hay lay nestled

Lining the dusty road

Hillsides burst into blueness

Swept in amber gold

Silence comes in easy

Houses sag their sides

Sunshine filters clouds

Hawks swim on wind tides

Notes of smoke

Stray from fallen leaves in piles

Trees shushing gently

Their branches swish their sleeves

Parted lips

So tender

Wet

With laden breeze

First published in Switching to ON!: The 2025 SebArts Writers Anthology AUG 2025 Wordrunner Press *print only

CALIFORNIA

Golden light of summer

Fading from our sky

Autumn’s softer colors

Come when others die

Birds

They still go swooping

Crying

In the wind

The land has lost its luster

Diggers of gold gave in

Dust has nearly settled

Grass

Smoky and grim

Vines on distant hills

Citrine and garnet strands

Hopeful new arrivals

Transplants by human hand

Blissful wasteland

Left to be

Only place

You feel free

First published in Switching to ON!: The 2025 SebArts Writers Anthology AUG 2025 Wordrunner Press *print only

Switching to ON!: The 2025 SebArts Writers Anthology - Available now at Amazon!

I have three poems included in this printed anthology:

"California"

"Sonoma Morning"

"Wild Nights"

Link to Amazon for Switching to ON!: The 2025 SebArts Writers Anthology

https://a.co/d/carRYPo

KRUSE RHODODENDRON RESERVE

I am a visitor

In this strange land

Where spring stands still

Light falls in curtains

Through lacy hands

Cupping high above

How did I enter this snow globe forest?

Here, steps are riddles

Not meant for humans

Pink blossomy tresses spread over patches

Burned by fires

Older than us

Like new skin

Healing the veins

Of this shadowy canyon

Pumping blood

To earth’s

Deep heart

First published in Woods Reader Summer 2025 *print only

LISTEN

In so subtle a swell

A shell

First published in Kelp Journal's Ocean Anthology 2025

FULL OF FLAME

A heart

A mind

My beloved’s name

Train your brain

To count the steps

To sense terrain

If a cobra strikes

It wins the game

Love’s wars can weary

Even the most steadfast

Of aims

If pilots flicker

Tenderness withers

Royalty fades

When goodness slithers

Tiny beating heart

Moth shot with a dart

Intentions torn apart

A flame cupped by two

Can banish creeping rue

The hazel can tempt any fire

But divided hearts in its path

Get reconciled

To matters higher

*In Greek mythology hazel had the power to reconcile hearts divided by hatred and envy

First published in Roi Fainéant MAR 30, 2025

https://www.roifaineantpress.com/archive

DEEPNESS

Caveats full of fury. Blessings sweet. Days are dreary. Dive deeper. Try harder. Be better.

Driving down into ditches. I hope the car lurches. But it won’t. Cause I’m meant to do more. Be more. Say more. Feel more.

Batches of boredom. Butchered hearts. Dumpsters full of used up parts. Resourceful, canny arts.

Dare I go there? Stairways lead there. Spirals of them. As far as you can see. Once you look down, no longer are you free.

Bridge the gap. Stay centered. The diplomat. Two sides of the coin. Conjoined. Rejoice, your choice.

Better still, diving into wells. Free falling. Full of wishes. Vanishing thoughts. Souls skipping. Be thankful for what you’ve got.

Come up for air, from oceans deep. Snows melt away. You’ll be yourself. Shallows damned. Shine forth from darkest shadows. Moon streaks on black ground.

I’m reaching as I’m falling.

Deepness knows no bounds.

First published in Roi Fainéant MAR 30, 2025

https://www.roifaineantpress.com/archive

MISSING THE MARK

There’s more here

Than meets the eye

Troubleshooting

Darts fly

The musk of a rose,

Tender

The notes of a wren,

Trill

Words are plenty

Wisdom scarce

Eyes see through water

But sight is cursed

We see no messages in matter

Too quick to rip roses to scatter

Showering fame’s blank ways

While hearts unheard

Weep

Pitter-patter

First published in Roi Fainéant MAR 30, 2025

https://www.roifaineantpress.com/archive

SO FAR AWAY

So far

SOFAR

Whales whispering

Water in a jar

Journey to the new

Sounds of the true

Sight of less

Deeper nests

Ocean’s best

Secrets sworn

Humans

Warned

SOund Fixing And Ranging Channel - a naturally occurring underwater ocean channel/zone where sounds carry great distances slowly by being trapped by refraction and dispersed horizontally at depths of 3300 ft. Scientists believe that baleen and humpback whales use the SOFAR channel to communicate. During WWII scientists deployed a hydrophone off a vessel anchored in Woods Hole, MA to listen in and test their theories.

First published in Kelp Journal's The Wave FEB 11, 2025

https://www.kelpjournal.com/post/poetry-two-poems-by-amanda-dawson