AMANDA NIAMH DAWSON : August 2025

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