I watch (way-to-many) true crime documentaries, mostly about cold case murders that have been solved years or decades later.
Recently I watched one about a woman named Abby Niebauer whose 1985 death as the result of a shotgun blast was ruled accidental.
Her family never believed it was accidental and 13 years later the case was reopened, ruled a homicide, and her then husband was arrested, tried and convicted of the crime.
During the documentary it was mentioned that Abby was a poet. In fact she was a well-regarded poet in her community of Palo Alto, California.
I immediately went on a Google Search but could find none of her poetry posted online.
I did find her book “Sun Rose” which was published posthumously. I ordered a copy from ThriftBooks online.
Browse | New & Used Books from ThriftBooks
A poem by Abby Niebauer from “Sun Rose”:
Recalling the Life Of Innocence
If I list each lichen by name, call
towee, robin, purple martin, and watch
the sycamore with fervor for the exact hour
sap departs from the leaves,
will this ease remembering
when nothing had a name
apart from our bodies? Paradise,
you said and I believed you. Was it
that word in which we lost
each other, our garden?
There leaves
were hands, flowers, lips and
tongues to speak without
words the joy
springing from our shoulders,
wings, arms rising, falling
breath, the wind turning
leaves to catch the sun
again, your face in my hands, all
that shining.
Articles about Abby Niebauer’s death:
Poet's life was cut short just as it bloomed--13 years later, her husband faces charges
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.true-crime/c/8NKe-feRe7c
Man, 70, Convicted of Wife’s 1985 Murder
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-dec-29-mn-58542-story.html
The Caesura Center for Poetry and Literature in San Jose created an Abby Niebauer Memorial Chapbook Award in her honor.