by Mark Gibbons
Raven struts
Down the sidewalk
Tasting
The air
Shakes its
Tuxedo tail
Dips to clean
The cement
Caws to another
Combing the grass
Hop-Roaming
The plaza
They dance
The Caw-ca-doodle-doo
Tango like
Dada-dandy
Blue-black
Crow sisters
Waddle bumping
Big breasts
In a hornpipe
Dead heat
For some sticky
Big Hunk
Candy
Wrapper
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In 1970, Mark was in a poetry workshop at his high school taught by an unknown Indian poet, James Welch. A student of Richard Hugo’s, (Sir James) Welch (acclaimed author of Fool’s Crow, Winter in the Blood, The Death of Jim Loney, and Killing Custer) gave Mark permission to write poetry in his own voice from his own life experiences. He’s been writing ever since. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. His first chapbook of poems, Something Inside Us, was self published in 1995, and a second, Circling Home, won the Scattered Cairns Press chapbook competition in 1999. Connemara Moonshine, the first full length collection of his poetry, was published in 2002 by Camphorweed Press, followed by blue horizon in 2007 from Two Dogs Press. War, Madness, & Love, a collaborative collection of poems with Appalachian poet Michael Revere appeared in 2008, R & R Publishing. Mauvaises Herbes (Weeds), a bilingual translation of his poems into French, was published in 2009 by PROPOS2 editions, France. His latest collection, Forgotten Dreams, from Foothills Publishing, 2012, also features the portrait photography of Lee Nye.
Mark established Blind Horses Press in 2011 and is currently working on editing and publishing a collection of six poets. He lives in Missoula with his wife, Pam, and their two cats, where he teaches poetry for The Missoula Writing Collaborative, The Montana Arts Council, and The 406 Writers’ Workshop.
"Sweetness" was published in Gibbons' 2012 Forgotten Dreams.