The elegance
Of stardom’s rush
To stoop
And look to find
My own hollows
Flush
First published in The Piker Press, DEC 1, 2025
GLOWING
Truth in strands
Comes dashing low
Over bent fields
Solemn
We glow
Published first in The Piker Press, OCT 27, 2025
https://www.pikerpress.com/article.php?aID=11498
*Painting by Winslow Homer, Metropolitan Museum of Art
DARTS
Anthems of peace
Breakneck speed
In deepest sheets
Of sleep
And code
Parameters breached
By me
This girl?
This lord
Unfurls
Trains tugging hearts
I’m on that sideline
Apart
I’m singing
Words
Our darts
Our greatest art
Published first in Action, Spectacle Summer 2025 Issue, SEP 15, 2025
RUIN
Pantaloon excursions
Into a wayward moon
Thoughts drift on forever
Coming soon to ruin
Published first in Lothlorien Poetry Journal Vol. 33, SEP 4, 2025
MAKE A WISH
Tread where you wish to go
Keeper of fools
Pennies we throw
Go lower
Down deep
We hope
With weak
Custom
In the bottom
They grow
Only we
Toss our dreams
To darkness below
And blow out
Our blessed sight
With candles
For wishes granted
In years
Our gains, once gold
Flip fast
Melted
In sorrow
Published first in Lothlorien Poetry Journal Vol. 33, SEP 4, 2025
https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/2025/09/three-poems-by-amanda-niamh-dawson.html
FOREVER
Spectral matter
Ageless powers
In the gloom
Shapeless rooms
Ancient flumes
Don’t come too soon
The time
Has many moons
And cycles of bloom
Of tides on shores
Of air so pure
Beings vast
Shall endure
Ageless powers
In the gloom
Shapeless rooms
Ancient flumes
Don’t come too soon
The time
Has many moons
And cycles of bloom
Of tides on shores
Of air so pure
Beings vast
Shall endure
First published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal Vol. 33, SEP 4, 2025
https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/2025/09/three-poems-by-amanda-niamh-dawson.html
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
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
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
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