by Angela Hoffman
Days that shorten, nights that lengthen How birds know how to make a nest, when to go That inner knowing that something is not right Roots underground, sending messages How monarchs find their way The magnitude of memory A great oak within a tiny acorn One small step in front of the other Why I didn’t die that day That voice I heard when no one was near The gravity of grief How one knows how to love
Angela Hoffman’s poetry collections include Resurrection Lily (Kelsay Books, 2022) and Olly Olly Oxen Free (forthcoming, Kelsay Books, 2023). She placed third in the WFOP Kay Saunders Memorial Emerging Poet, 2022. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Solitary Plover, Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Museletter and Calendar, Agape Review, Verse-Virtual, Visual Verse, Your Daily Poem, Writing In A Woman’s Voice, Moss Piglet, Amethyst Review, Orchards Poetry Journal, POETiCA REViEW, Wilda Morris’s Poetry Challenge, and Lothlorien Poetry Journal. She has written a poem a day since the start of the pandemic. Angela lives in rural Wisconsin.
Agape Review 