Darren C. Demaree
Bio: Darren C. Demaree is the author of sixteen poetry collections, most recently “a child walks in the dark”, (Harbor Editions, November 2021). He is the recipient of a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, the Louise Bogan Award from Trio House Press, and the Nancy Dew Taylor Award from Emrys Journal. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Best of the Net Anthology and the Managing Editor of Ovenbird Poetry. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.
Winter with its Sharp Fingers
for Alina Stefanescu
sparrow-mouthed from wherethe cedar chips cannot warm& all of the fifteenth days pass
without the violence, the must& the must have, the purplehope of defiance, the whole
of nature, which reaches past the spasms of winter, which gives the faithful feeling
an observation podium, a reality that does not askthe astonishing to be evidence
of anything, i call, i call to say i am lost in weather like this, in this weathering world
& you, you say you can see me underneath not much more than a small fit of berries
sparrow-mouthed from wherethe cedar chips cannot warm& all of the fifteenth days pass
without the violence, the must& the must have, the purplehope of defiance, the whole
of nature, which reaches past the spasms of winter, which gives the faithful feeling
an observation podium, a reality that does not askthe astonishing to be evidence
of anything, i call, i call to say i am lost in weather like this, in this weathering world
& you, you say you can see me underneath not much more than a small fit of berries
