By Linda Boyden©2019
The cedar wreath burned.
Sparked against the night,
a full moon glowed
in sympathy with the cedar.
On the earth,
this red earth,
the cedar flamed.
The moon,
etched among
the boughs of a tree,
a foreign tree in full bloom,
the wind dipped and swayed
through the boughs
and the moon blossomed.
Tongues of flame
from the burning cedar
sparked high,
higher than the blooms,
higher than the boughs,
to the moon
they reached,
to paint it with fire.
A horse and rider passed,
unexpected, startling.
The muffled hooves stirred
the red dirt road,
raising dust.
Like the cedar smoke,
the dust flared
into the night,
spiraled
to the clouds
like a wish,
like a prayer,
an offering
to the moon.
Linda Boyden is an author, illustrator and storyteller who used to be a teacher. Her first picture book, The Blue Roses, was released in 2002 by Lee and Low Books; it was the winner of their New Voices Award. Since then, she has also published other acclaimed picture books, including Powwow's Coming (University of New Mexico Press).
Her Giveaways: An ABC Book of Loanwords from the Americas is an amazing addition to alphabet books - and she illustrated it as well. In 2013 she wrote an illustrated her fourth picture book Boy and Poi Por Puppy and she celebrated the completion of her fifth picture book, Roxy Reindeer in Fall 2014.
In addition to writing for children, Linda Boyden has contributed to the following collections for adults:
Linda Boyden enjoys school visits, storytelling programs at libraries, and presenting at writing conferences and other events around the country and is an active member of SCBWI, Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers & Storytellers and the Redding Writers Forum.
I was honored and grateful to receive the gift of her permission to showcase her beautiful poem. I hope you enjoyed her poem as much as I did and that you'll learn more about her and her work at:
http://www.lindaboyden.com/
