Welcome to the Oregon Caves
By Barry Vitcov
This week’s Poetry Corner features three poems inspired by Jennifer Rood’s experience as the artist-in-residence for the Oregon Caves National Monument in fall 2023. Her three poems include a haiku, sonnet, and free verse. It’s a wonderful variety of poetic forms for a place that offers an incredible range of experiences, both underground and in the surrounding forest.
The Poetry Corner is possible because of submissions by poets who find something interesting to say about life in Southern Oregon. There were a good number of submissions when this column began, but they are tapering off. We need more! Please, see below for guidelines and how to submit. The guidelines are suggestive and the submission process is easy, so please send in one, or two, or three or as many as you’d like.
Three Poems
By Jennifer Rood
Haiku
inside the mountain
the cave creates its wonders
droplet by droplet
Stalactite and Stalagmite: A Love Story
No light showed them the way. Still, in darkness,
they grew toward each other, unable to
keep from reaching across the black abyss
with their cool fingertips. They grew and grew
through eons of time—thousands and thousands
of years for just an inch! But with no sun
to mark passing days, what was time? A dance
with no measure, no rhythm, but still one
that drew them together. While stalagmite
mounded and rose, stalactite arrowed toward
the first touch they would share—delicate, light,
the wet kiss that bound them forever! Moored
now together, they’ve combined into one.
We know them today as the Grand Column.
Roots
reach deep
twist and seek
break through
grab onto
stretch down
underground
twist and coil
through the soil
braid and weave
nourish trees
Jennifer Rood has been writing poems and stories since first grade, when her teacher would make time for her to read her work to the class. She has dozens of published poems in various journals and anthologies, including Verseweavers, Slant, Snapdragon, GreenPrints, FrogPond, and others. She is a past Board Member (2018-2021) and President (2020-21) of the Oregon Poetry Association, and recently won first place for her prose poem “Breaking” in OPA’s Fall 2022 Contest. In 2023, she released What the Heart Says, a chapbook of found poetry/art (available through oregonbooks.com), and is looking forward to the release of a full-length book of her found poetry/art through Not A Pipe Publishing in the coming year. After raising a family and working variously as a high school English, social studies, and art teacher for the past 30 years, she is happily anticipating her retirement and the many new creative opportunities it will make room for, including serving as the artist-in-residence for the Oregon Caves National Monument in fall 2023.
Poetry Submissions Welcomed!
You are invited to submit original work to the Poetry Corner. There are only two restrictions: First, poems need to show a connection to Ashland and/or Southern Oregon. Your interpretation of that connection is fairly loose! Second, poems need to be aligned to the left margin. The publishing platform used by Ashland.news has issues with the creative use of space! There are no length restrictions but try to keep your poems to no more than 30 lines. Be sure to include the title of your poem, your name as you would like it to appear, the city or town in which you reside, and, if you wish, your preferred pronouns.
To submit poems, send to Barry Vitcov at haikubjv@gmail.com.
