whirlpool and when you think
you know the prevailing wind
turn scurrying mice–
or thoughts when trying
to sleep
A barn is almost swallowed
by new development,
the farm house recently gone—
the barn still red
Nearby stands a tree
with all leaves gone
from sea change without
having seen the sea
Each fall day
I feel more the visitor
in a strange land
___
Carol Smallwood co-edited (Molly Peacock, foreword) Women on Poetry: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing by Successful Women Poets (McFarland, 2012); Compartments: Poems on Nature, Femininity and Other Realms (Anaphora Literary Press, 2011) was nominated for the Pushcart. Women Writing on Family: Tips on Writing, Teaching and Publishing, (Key Publishing House, 2012) is her most recent book. Her sixth anthology for the American Library Association, Bringing Arts into the Library, is forthcoming. Some magazine credits include: The Writer’s Chronicle, English Journal.