© Leslye Layne Russell
the-hold.com July 2001
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Highway 49 east of Bassett’s Station, elevation 6600
flash fuchsia—
stop the car
walk back
slowly
wild sweet pea
deep pink brilliant
by the road
edge of fir and pine
come up carefully
breathe color
black bumble bee works
walks on fragile petals
in the air above pink
zip
hummingbird green and yellow
hovers in sun
looks me right in the eyes
zip
dragonflies
wings in evening gold
rest on fir boughs
two side by side
tilt
balance
narrow North Yuba
over boulders
rushes behind
spider web shimmers
liquid light
dark forest backdrop
tiny filaments stretch
silver
tree to tree
half moon
suspended
above trees and gray curves
of highway 49
stillness
solstice cherries
deep red
held in high
branches
squirrel jumps
tree to tree
black
to
bing—
you climb down
your silver ladder
to the sky
with a bag of red
delicious summer
begins
third period
crows fly into
bright green
early June maples
shimmer
tall pine shadows
fall on empty benches
high school
courtyard
quiet now
but for black
iridescence
in morning sun
Piner High School, Santa Rosa, California
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Leslye Layne Russell, northern California poet, is also a performing singer and guitarist, and experienced minimalist dancer. In 1969 Layne received her degree in English from Chico State where she studied poetry and writing with George Keithley. She did post-graduate work in Religious Studies at CSU, Chico, and in the Arts and Religious Studies at Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado. Layne's poetry has appeared in many poetry journals since she began publishing her work in 1996. After living in Sonoma County for twenty-six years where she raised her two daughters and stepson, Layne recently moved to Redding with her husband, guitarist James Russell, and their blue-eyed Lynx Point Siamese, Sky. Layne's extensive poetry web site, A Quiet Place, can be found at http://whiteowlweb.com.
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© 1998-2001 Leslye Layne Russell / the-hold.com - all rights reserved
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