Elizabeth Alford Features 5/9/16

5/9/16 Elizabeth Alford

Elizabeth Alford has always had an on-again-off-again relationship with poetry; but in the wake of her graduation from CSU East Bay, she recently announced that they are now going steady (much to everyone’s relief). She lives in Hayward, CA with her loving fiancé, mother, and two stupid dogs. Her favorite things include sushi, loud music on long drives, staring at the stars, and poetry. Her work has appeared in the student literary magazine Occam’s Razor (once as third place winner in the Donald Markos Poetry Contest of 2014); and also online at Poetry Super Highway, Haikuniverse, Quatrain.fish, and the blogs of Silver Birch Press and Creative Talents Unleashed.
https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethAlfordPoetry/

"... Poetry is a verb, not a noun." - Jane Hirshfield


Poetry is a Verb

by Elizabeth Alford


When canyons rise to meet the cliffs
and the rivers all run dry;
when the air we need is hard to breathe,
come poetry with me.

For the sea itself is drowning
and the deserts cry for rain.
The bread we eat has tainted grain;
come poetry with me.

While the roads we take are crumbling
and our sidewalks fall apart,
a drifting leaf is no sign of peace;
come poetry with me.

When ancient trees are paved away,
stillbirthing barren land,
and the life we know has given way
once Fate has dealt our hand;

we’ll watch the stars above implode,
believing we’re still free.
When the world is gone, you’ll understand.
Come poetry with me.