Sample Poetry
The poems below were chosen as “Best Poems” and excerpted from the two most recent issues of the Aurorean. Poems were selected by independent judges.
Rights remain with authors.
Bufo americanus
Beneath our front step
the solemn philosophic toad
steps out at dusk one eve each May
and every twilight following till frost.
Beneficent pebbled goblin,
gnomish household god,
we gladly do his bidding;
keep the cats inside.
Prodigious insect-eater,
gnat-devourer,
closing eyes with
gastronomic bliss,
he wipes shovel-mouth
with elfin forelimb
so smugly we expect a belch,
a contemplative pipe.
Canny transverse pupil
set in gold-leaf orb,
no intimate examiner
could ever find
his doleful gaze unlovely.
One day, while window shopping
I saw a toad scooped out
to make a purse for coins
—tanned and glazed
a zipper for his mouth—
and cried.
—by Nancy A. Henry, from the Spring/Summer 2011 Aurorean
* * *
Up the boggy headland, frozen now, where a stone fence
Submerged in snow and earth-sink hints at pasture
So long vanished that the woods are convinced
Grassland never existed, two bodies climb—one fast,
Black, doe-agile; one slogging and foot-bound
Like a superannuated tortoise. Guess which is me.
Easy to badmouth my grace but oddly hard to expound
On the postcard beauties of our workaday scenery—
Giant pines draped with frosting, wisp of chimney cloud
Threading skyward, and behind the frosted window
A glorious wall of books, lamp-lit; a dear bowed head.
In tales, common enchantment always merits less than woe,
And perhaps I should collapse on the stoop like a starved Jane Eyre,
Pleading heat and mercy. But I earn my joy. I mean, I live here.
—by Dawn Potter, from the 15th Anniversary (Fall/Winter 2010–2011) Aurorean
