Each month, the San Francisco Public Library Web site features
selected poems reflecting the theme of War and Peace on Our Streets.
To submit a poem or for more information about the project, see our News Release.
Past Featured Poets | September Web Poems | October Web Poems |
November/December Web Poems
December Featured Poet: Gail Mitchell
In her words, Gail Mitchell was “born here to witness and write”. She started in the Fillmore and moved to Ocean View as a child but has lived in the Western Addition since the 1970's. She writes about history as she has seen it.
“I write about love and loss. I'm a mother, wife, sister, friend, and I marched with my 2 year old and my husband the night Harvey Milk and Moscone were shot and even now my kids remember that I would never let them eat Twinkies.”
Her book, Bone Songs, was published by Taurean Horn Press in 1999. Her poems have appeared in the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Awatee 3 and 4, Sacred Grounds anthology 7 and 8, BeatitudeOxygen number 21. Currently, she is working on her MFA at SFSU.
Recommended Reading by Gail Mitchell:
- Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
This is one of those books that reminded me that the poor are getting poorer.
- On the Good Red Interstate: Truck Stop Tellings and Other Poems by Lee Francis
This collection of poems is part map, part observation, part humor. Here are poems about the road of one man’s life. I had the good fortune to be able to read with Lee Francis and Q.R. Hand at the Petaluma Poetry Walk during 2002.
- Be Properly Scared by M.Wyrebek
These poems tell the story of a woman dealing with illness and medical intervention . Her vision is acute and the poems are poignant. Her words are strong medicine.
- Henry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
Occasionally I still read to my daughter at night. It is one of my luxuries. This is one of those books we enjoyed together.
- The Raven Warrior by Alice Borchardt
This is another take on Guinevere; it's purely one of my ways of escaping the every day world and she does know how to weave a tale.
December Featured Poem by Gail Mitchell
Double Nickels
It is fragments that remain the cutting up of the pieces to make the whole
the white space around the border
the broken arrow someone’s great-great-great grandfather held on to
the skins taken off a dead woman hang in a museum to remind us of manifest destiny
there are tell tale signs old shields moccasins a baby’s cradle board a head dress
and a shirt someone danced in to bring back a dream
they are the spoils of war numbered and catalogued
the blood stains in the snow are only memories
Wounded Knee a tale told twice
smoke and ash of long gone cook fires something else that has passed into history’s memory
where are you tonight where is your head pillowed are you shadow dancing
dreaming of the last taste of sweetness
in my heart there is a red hand print and the bitter taste of history’s lies
90 proof won’t bring back the warriors won’t change the way some women bleed
when I say I’ll see you in the morning that is a prayer that you will survive
my heart is singing to you can you hear it
it is the drum calling you to warm yourself to wake from your haze
it will take more than a fast horse more than beads and ribbons
there are so many stories to be told
I don’t want you to become one more urban Indian statistic
don’t want to hear earth shattering news that someone found you off 18th and Mission
with your head split open and sunshine pouring into dead eyes
remember that photograph you keep telling me about
of the young mothers with their children
we are no different than the ancestors we are what they left behind to continue
fire water poisoner of spirit teller of lies broken glass broken hearts broken lives
the cutting of the pieces to destroy the whole
how do I talk about blood wine and sacrifice
I have not seen you in 10 or 15 days
and that tape loop is playing in my head again
when I say I’ll see you in the morning it is a prayer for your survival
