When Traveling in Airplanes I Always Think of God<\/p>\n
\nespecially circling a city before landing at night
\nwhen the streetlamps spray the invisible avenues with blown golden seeds.<\/p>\n
I think of God when the police shoot<\/p>\n
King Kong on the tiny screen three rows ahead of me.<\/p>\n
I think of God in the spring because everything<\/p>\n
finally breaks open.<\/p>\n
I think of God when I start awake after re-dreaming a crash against the mountain.<\/p>\n
And who have I become? A captive watching them kill the beast?<\/p>\n
When we were a little higher up illuminated by our wing lights<\/p>\n
the clouds looked solid and edible like God\u2019s big cake.<\/p>\n
Once upon a time I thought I heard words meant for me.<\/p>\n
I believed I could teach people just by living my life but then I got so tired.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Katharine Whitcomb<\/a> is the author of a collection of poems, Saints of South Dakota & Other Poems<\/a>,<\/em> which was chosen by Lucia Perillo as the winner of the 2000 Bluestem Award and published by Bluestem Press, and two poetry chapbooks. Hosannas<\/a><\/em> (Parallel Press, 1999) and Lamp of Letters <\/a><\/em>(Floating Bridge Press, 2009), winner of the 2009 Floating Bridge Chapbook Award. Her poetry awards include a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, a Loft-McKnight Award, a Writing Fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and a Halls Fellowship at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. She has had work published in many journals and anthologies, including Fire on Her Tongue,<\/a> Making Poems,<\/a><\/em> and Dorothy Parker\u2019s Elbow: Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos. <\/a><\/em>She lives in Ellensburg, WA, where she is Coordinator of the Writing Specialization English Major at Central Washington University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Traveling in Airplanes I Always Think of God especially circling a city before landing at night when the streetlamps spray the invisible avenues with blown golden seeds. I think of God when the police shoot King Kong on … Continue reading