SWWIM sustains and celebrates women poets by connecting creatives across generations and by curating a living archive of contemporary poetry, while solidifying Miami as a nexus for the literary arts.
The winters of my childhood live in a globed kingdom, an unsullied world of snow forts two heads higher than we stood; long slopes padded with flurried day upon flurried day. Time a bright tunnel.
I am losing count of the seasons our snow blower languishes in a corner of the garage, still shiny red, its paddles at the ready. Yet no great white sprays arc to the lawn. No snowmen or angels.
In this long interlude since snow draped from tree branch to roof to street, since ice prismed the morning, I miss the spell of that particular blue-white light borrowed from the skin along a newborn's spine; bottle of milk on a moonlit sill.
Paper-white, pure, that kingdom, unmarked even by woodland animal or tire tread. Now that I am advised to avoid extremes of heat and cold, and any excess of excitement
I long for that commotion in my chest, where my heart kicks as I clutch the sides of a silver saucer, plunging and spinning at the same time toward some steep, bottomless joy.
Barbara Sabol's fourth poetry collection, Imagine a Town, won the 2019 poetry manuscript prize from Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. Her work has appeared most recently in Evening Street Review, One Art, Mezzo Cammin, Literary Accents and Modern Haiku, and in numerous anthologies. Barbara received her MFA from Spalding University. Her awards include an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. She lives in Akron, OH with her husband and wonder dogs.