Rooftop Poetry Club - Lisa Forrest

Lisa Forrest
forresla@buffalostate.edu

Bio:
Lisa A. Forrest is a Senior Assistant Librarian for SUNY College at Buffalo and the founding member of the school's Rooftop Poetry Club. She is the recipient of the 2008 Excellence in Library Service Award from the Western New York Library Resources Council (WNYLRC), and a 2007 and 2008 Pushcart prize nominee. Lisa's writing has appeared in a variety of local and national publications, including American Libraries, Artvoice, Buffalo News, eco-poetics, foursquare, Lake Affect, Not Just Air Literary eJournal, WordWrights, and Yellow Edenwald Field. Her commentaries have been featured on WBFO, Buffalo's local National Public Radio station. Lisa's first collection of poems, To the Eaves, is available from BlazeVox Books.

Poems:

Wintering

Lend me your compass
find the tree naked limbs
where black birds dance,

Where black birds dance wings wide
February light
frozen and silent,

Frozen and silent firmament
arrow spins, wings arched dive
can’t stop

Can’t stop shivering
return to you a comet
compass in hand

Compass in hand touch mimics pulse
round world new world
center shifts

Center shifts as you
fade from view
a place

A place and all this
burst wintered stars
a broad field

A broad field of perfect snow
watch your footprints
footprints rhythmically appear.