The Paddock Review

…

Dawn at JFK Departure Gate 

….

A pigeon nesting in the eves

coos as the sun rises, 

and a plane leaves.

….

Dawn casts its runways

of light through twenty 

foot tall windows,

….

and sparrows fly low 

through the terminal

above the masked 

….

passengers at the gates.

Here we sit corralled

and hushed, unaware

….

of all the wax 

and feathers it takes 

to fly towards the sun. 

….

At home, I watch doves

outstretch their wings 

and ascend upwards for yards

….

as if nothing could happen, 

as if no hawk ever circles

above our house,

….

or no car could ever suck 

them under its chassis 

and leave them fluttering 

…

awkwardly by the side 

of the road. Unlike them, 

I head into safety or peril

…

trailing a hundred worries.  

I embark for six months 

across the Atlantic,

…

as the anti-Icarus

who has planned her escape

to survive the flight.

…..

This poem is from the chapbook Dropping Sunrises in a Jar (Finishing Line Press), and is available at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/dropping-sunrises-in-a-jar-by-melinda-thomsen/

Each poem in Dropping Sunrises in a Jar began as a way to understand why birds appear so happy at sunrise. Written from notes spanning over twenty years, Dropping Sunrises in a Jar glimpses nature’s inner workings of joy.  In free verse and form poems, sunrises from across the globe are depicted in a variety of awakening colors and sounds. Poems recount the morning opera from locations like a sleeping car on a train going to Beijing to construction crane noise in Prague, the cooing of doves in North Carolina, and canyon towhees in Arizona. By organizing the poems into three sections:  I’ll tell you how the Sun rose, A Ribbon at a time, and The Steeples swam in Amethyst, the readers ultimately find themselves gently released back into their world with signs of hope.

….

Melinda Thomsen’s Armature from Hermit Feathers Press (2021) was a finalist for the 2022 Eric Hoffer da Vinci Eye award and an honorable mention in the 2019 Lena Shull Poetry Contest from NC Poetry Society.  Her books Field Rations (2011) and Naming Rights (2007) are also from Finishing Line Press, and her latest poems can be found in Salamander Magazine, Artemis Journal, THEMA, The Ekphrastic Review, Poetry Miscellany, The New York Quarterly, and Poetry Quarterly, among others.  A 2023 Randall Jarrell Poetry Contest Honorable Mention,  2019 Pushcart Nominee from The Comstock Review, and a Semi-Finalist in the 2004 “Discovery” / The Nation poetry contest, she’s an advisory editor for Tar River Poetry and current Vice President of Programming for the North Carolina Poetry Society.  A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, she received her MA in English from The City College, CUNY, and MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.  She is the Writing Center Coordinator for the John Paul II Catholic School and lives in North Carolina with her husband Hunt, two cats, and one chicken.