Day after day, she sits with the weather. Every forecast brings its pressure. She watches the sky, alert for signs of the next atmospheric river, bomb cyclone, land spout, sting jet. She’s a druid navigating extremes—angered by falsehoods, awed by what threatens, praying at an altar of fossils and feathers, seeking to transmute the future.

shaman’s rattle
the spirit world
never distant

Cynthia Anderson

A California resident and poet for more than 40 years, Cynthia Anderson is the author of 12 books, most recently Arrival (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2023). Her poems have been published widely in journals and anthologies, and she has received multiple nominations for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. Her recent work focuses on the natural world and her family history. She is co-editor of the anthology A Bird Black As the Sun: California Poets on Crows & Ravens (Green Poet Press).

Author’s website: www.cynthiaandersonpoet.com