Short Upwind Poems

A hunter
not skinner  
with quarry
so vast 
Whose path
through the forest
is first
—never last

(Garrett Hill Pennsylvania: January, 2021)...

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Is the Oracle wise
the Buddha fat
or the Great
Niagara wet
Description wanes
where titan’s reign
as words are left
to falter
And blow upwind
against the grain
in messages
— sublime

(The New Room: December, 2024) 
...

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Listen to poem:

Where does this wind blow in from,
where has it been, what has it done?
Vanes it twisted, clothes it flapped.
Fog and smoke palls blown away.
Sails it tautened, eagles soaring supported.

Blow-ins are welcome with hair bedraggled
clothes disheveled, flapped to tatters
For the wind makes being untidy acceptable,
especially when facing upwind right in the face of it.
The wind will drop soon, and die away, begone
leaving the parade to stand easy....

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Downwind
of my perception
Upwind
before the fall
Immune
in my protection 
From dullards 
at the mall

The past
remains in focus
The future
but a myth
My words
fall out of judgment
Each phrasing
to enrich

To read 
with understanding
To hear
beyond the din
To feel
beyond the senses
To love
beyond the rim

Released 
without containment
On wings
not leased or loaned
Into
the inner sanctums
With time
— Goliath’s stone

(The New Room: June, 2025)
...

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	Russell Sivey
Contest Name	Good Luck Meal 

Aussie Drover’s  tucker

Build your fire upwind of the billy,
If you want it to more than shepherd boil,
Thick slabs of Corn meat n damper,   (camp oven bread)
 with a drop of tomato sauce,
Or corn meat fritters fried on the coals,
In kidney fat of course,
A billy full of Bushels tea,
Just sitting on a log,
And banana  fried  well, fritters,
Washed down with some tea or grog,
Sometimes .
On New year’s days a droving . 

...

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