What Light: This Week’s Poem: K. Alma Peterson
"What Light: This Week's Poem, sponsored by Magers and Quinn Booksellers, brings you a poem every week by a Minnesota poet, selected by a panel of writers and publishers. Look for our anthology, What Light, at Magers and Quinn in Uptown or on line.
April Gothic
Across the lake the private cemetery
recedes into sublime gloom—
headstones darken, the headlights
of a single car grope for
an opening in the high iron gate.
Soon it will be October—the fatigued
leaves will flutter but feel nothing.
Caretakers will rake and rake,
Bag and bag; the sky
will shudder and go blank.
The exuberant new leaves, the rain
pointing long dark fingers at
the pale trees. I have forgotten
to cover my head, and must cup
my tender ears or the wind
will think I’m listening when,
in its fury, it names me still part
of the world, so in its way.
Biography
K. Alma Peterson is a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Her undergraduate degree from the University of MN is in Mathematics.
She owns a small business and writes poems as time and inspiration allow. Her poems have appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, The New Orphic Review, ArtWord Quarterly and others. In 1999, her poem “Between Us” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
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