Ansie Baird
Take Two
Well, I'll get over it, you say
Your parents die in a desperate way
Well, I'll get over it, you say
Your children grow and move away
Well, I'll get over it, you say
Your marriage crumbles into clay
Well, I'll get over it, you say
Your cheerfulness begins to fray
Well, I'll get over it, you say
Your medicines are on display
Well, I'll get over it, you say
Your pale hair is turning gray
Well, I'll get over it, you say
A man no longer comes to play
Well, I'll get over it, you say
Sometimes it helps a bit to pray
Well, I'll get over it, you say
Insomnia is here to stay
Well, I'll get over it, you say
As age increases every May
Well, I'll get over it, you say
And so you will. One final day
You leave for good and that's okay
Wind Change
(child changing)
It's not the wind on the prairie
or the wind sweeping across
the vacant pastures, shattering
glass in the barn windows.
It's the tender voice of one
small person singing a plaint,
re-playing his discordant days,
this separateness, his need
to be alone and known,
naming himself anew,
recognized as someone
brave, scared and real.
We who hover outside,
shifting against the gale,
wrap blankets about
our cold shoulders,
bending through silence
to hear hummed lyrics
strummed by the wind,
our changeable off-spring,
for are they not co-mingled,
the boy and the wind, the
wind and the boy, one storm
rife with lament and praise?
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| AUTHOR BIO |
| Ansie Baird taught for forty years at The Buffalo Seminary, is a former editor for Earth's
Daughters, has taught for Just Buffalo in their Writers In Education program, and participated in the Albright-Knox collaborative entitled: A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words. Her work has been published a number of times in The Paris Review, as well as in The Southern Review, The Denver Quarterly, The Quarterly, Western Humanities Review, New Ohio Review and a number of other journals. Her book, In Advance Of All Parting, won the White Pine Press national poetry competition and was published by White Pine Press in 2009. In September of 2016, BlazeVOX Press published her second
full-length collection of poems, The Solace of Islands. In addition, in 2016, she was one of four poets included in Outriders Press book entitled Four Buffalo Poets. The Foundling Press is publishing her latest collection, entitled Porch Watch, in May of 2019.
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| POETRY CONTRIBUTORS |
 Ansie Baird
Melissa Balmain
Kathryn Boswell
Maya Chhabra
Geraldine Connolly
Linda Conroy
Lisa DeSiro
Peggy Landsman
Susan McLean
Diane Lee Moomey
Samantha Pious
M. B. Powell
Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas
Alexandra Umlas
Cheryl Whitehead
Marly Youmans (Featured Poet)
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| Rounded in deep compassion for the human experience across borders, Mizrachi explores both the spiritual and physical dimensions of being human, and in particular, female. Often times, the female figure in various mythical iterations intersects with earthbound feminine forms as a means to communicate and transmit social consciousness. Mizrachi’s intentions include the empowerment of self and others through artistic expression, as well as advocacy for women, youth, and the environment. Family, community, and tribe are also recurring themes and are approached as active spaces of shared engagement.
In recent years, Mizrachi’s studio practice has developed into a testing ground for explorations in assemblage, sculpture, and installation that has transformed both her painting practice and decades of work as a muralist. Moving beyond paint, her small scale pieces have become sculptural drawings and her murals have become outdoor wall installations. Both styles of work have taken on new life as three dimensional geometric forms.
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