mining calm

by Amy Barone

For the nonstop bad news of every day,

I’d like to erect a blockade to soften 

each virtual brush with a brutal death

or assault or theft. 

And protected as a grove of aspen trees 

joined at the root, I’ll cultivate a space 

of sunny reveries and warm rain 

guarded by a circle of angels 

that can’t erase life’s rich presence. 

Amy Barone’s latest poetry collection, Defying Extinction, was published by Broadstone Books in 2022. New York Quarterly Books released her collection, We Became Summer, in 2018. She wrote chapbooks Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press) and Views from the Driveway (Foothills Publishing). Barone’s poetry has appeared in The Café Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, New Verse News, The Ocotillo Review and Paterson Literary Review, among other publications. She belongs to the brevitas online poetry community. From Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, she lives in New York City and Haverford, PA. X: @AmyBBarone