Abraham Smith
Winter 2025 | Poetry
Three Poems
...poets are the micas
fiddlehead ferns
in milk-drenched
druidic eruptions
strike sparks from
choice spring ones
when flesh is flame
frog water and rain...
...marisa anderson's
playing gives a sky
above the sky
where new breaths
huddle and shuffle
bottle is bottles
in a bottle factory
various as branches
delicious wrong turn
right light return
winter lean
wean leaner
when you go
remember butter
you don't have to
i don't have to
we don't have to
wait to wake...
...charlie parr's playing
and singing invite us
to turn our clothing
inside out cut away
the pockets these
will drop from
heron faces falling
in the one-foot-in way
of wet paper fire
free free free
you say you
want to be
cloud for a day
yes a blue ride wow...
Abraham Smith was raised around Ladysmith, Wisconsin, and lives in Ogden, Utah, where he is associate professor of English and co-director of Creative Writing at Weber State University. His recent poetry collections include One Warm Morning (Stubborn Mule Press, 2025), Insomniac Sentinel (Baobab Press, 2023), and Dear Weirdo (Propeller Books, 2022). Away from his desk, Smith improvises poems inside songs with the Snarlin' Yarns: thesnarlinyarnsut.bandcamp.com.