Gudrun Bortman

Fireweed Gudrun Bortman

A Poetry Box Chapbook Prize Selection - Third Place (tie)

In November 2008, a vicious wildfire swept through Santa Barbara, California, forcing many residents to flee in fear, while wondering what would survive the angry flames. These poems tell that story through one woman's experience of loss and her resiliency to rebuild in the aftermath of destruction. Above all, this is a story of hope.



My meadow scorched and bleak

without the cooling trees.
Trenches gape, deep as graves, and the garden
chokes under dust and rock.

But there see? There: a sapling thrives,
a seed that rode in on the fire's wings.