Author: Katherine West
Katherine West lives in Southwest New Mexico, near Silver City. She has written three collections of poetry: The Bone Train, Scimitar Dreams, and Riddle, as well as one novel, Lion Tamer. Her poetry has appeared in journals such as Writing in a Woman's Voice, Lalitamba, Bombay Gin, New Verse News, Tanka Journal, Splash!, Eucalypt, Writers Resist, Feminine Collective and Southwest Word Fiesta. New Verse News nominated her poem And Then the Sky for a Pushcart Prize in 2019. In addition she has had poetry appear as part of art exhibitions at the Light Art Space gallery in Silver City, New Mexico, the Windsor Museum in Windsor, Colorado, and the Tombaugh Gallery in Las Cruces, New Mexico. She is also an artist.
THE WHITE GOD RISES
January 20, 2025 Behind dark mountains at dusk, the white god rises.Long after the loss of trust, the white god rises. During eclipse, they bang pans to bring the moon back.She laughs, what’s wrong with the cusp? The white god rises. Who sculpts the shape of woman, the shape of Read more
A STORM OF WOMEN
All night, she thought she heard storms, or were they just dreams? She thought she heard a voice speaking in dusty dreams. She was so sick that she could never go outside. So she planted a small garden of trusting dreams. They shared the same chain. One barked; the other Read more
IN NUMBERS GREAT
Last night I had a dream I flew A flying fish, I leapt from fountains, from sacred pools long and blue. I Dreamt I hung, then plunged as from a mountain. From somewhere there was singing. From somewhere there were birds. From somewhere there was ringing. From somewhere a flight Read more
A MARRIAGE OF OPPOSITES
At breakfast, you tell me the world cannot be held with words—it must be shaped like a cave painting that accepts its life as a slice of the whole. Words are ambitious, you say, they imagine they can contain whatever I yearn to contain. Words are a beautiful bit in Read more
THE SECRET
“We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.” –Robert Frost In Poland, a young woman is having her blood tested for abortion medication. The test comes out positive, and the police escort her to jail. You are not interested in the news. Read more
WHEN YOU ARRIVE
You have wandered this road for a long time. You have left versions of yourself along the way, like sluffed off skins of earlier snakes. There are times when longing pulls you back to examine the scraps of tissue paper skin that hint at the nature of these other selves. Read more