Keisha Blakely lived in Fresno for fifteen years and recently graduated from California State University, Fresno, with BA and MA degrees in English Literature. While at CSU Fresno, she studied poetry and fiction with Dixie Salazar, Liza Wieland, Steve Yarborough, and was acquainted with Phil Levine.
Currently, Keisha Blakely is living in Huntington Beach, California, where she teaches English and reading at Golden West College. Although she no longer resides in Central California, she has strong ties to the Central Valley and considers that Valley to be a huge part of who she is as a writer.
There is movement above the sky
The sky keeps turning
above the thick forest trees
whose leaves bleed red
in the early September evening,
movement above the plowed yellow fields
hills whose tops invent the horizon
and allow black birds to pass over.
Beyond shifting violet clouds,
Beyond wind that sometimes blows,
Beyond what our eyes choose to see,
Sky that twists through the stars,
Harmonizes with the planets,
As we get further and further from where things begin.
Jacaranda
purple smoke held up
suspended in the sky
blooms before it leaves
Color stopping grey spring
skies so low
can't engulf
new life
with its weight.
Low spirit cancelled
with soft sprays of
flowers on split branches.
Remember that warm, windy day
we trespassed on those hills
by the sea in Santa Cruz?
The ocean spread out
dark and flat beneath the sky.
We walked up the yellow grass fields
on the top where the path led
to a grove of mystical mesquite trees.
We sat in their gnarled hands
under limbs that shaded us
from the scorching July sun.
Those two young deer came so close
to touching our stretched fingertips
before they ran off together.
I got caught in their stare
the way I used to get caught in yours.
Now, I look back and hear
no sound on those hills,
only the breeze,
and don't remember what we said
only that you picked wild flowers for me
and were concerned about the colors.
We held hands
Peace and stillness between us
for a day at least
embraced us like we once held on.
All text and images in The Central California Poetry Journal are copyrighted. Copyright by © by Scott Galloway 2000. All rights are reserved. See main Journal page for
copyright information.
Authors and poets submitting original materials to this journal retain all rights to their original work, except those rights specifically assigned in writing to Solo Publications including the right to publish the submitted work in The Central California Poetry Journal. The poems on this page are copyrighted by the author. Copyright © Keisha Blakely 2000.
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