Love
Out of dark, you,
like a lone goose crossing the moon
seen first by the startled heart,
the seeds of my calling
sprung from the tilled garden.
A kindling.
Here in the belly of what is known.
Open wings, to flame
there
nothing but consumption.
Karla Van Vliet is the author of two collections of poems, From the Book of Remembrance (Shanti Arts, 2015), and The River From My Mouth (Shanti Arts, 2016) and a poem length chapbook, Fragments: From the Lost Book of the Bird Spirit (Folded Word, 2018.) She is an Edna St. Vincent Millay Poetry Prize finalist, and a two-time Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee. Her poems have appeared in Acumen, Poet Lore, The Tishman Review, Green Mountains Review, Crannog Magazine, and others. Karla is a co-founder and editor of deLuge Journal. She is an Integrative Dreamwork analyst, artist and administrator of the New England Young Writers' Conference at Bread Loaf, Middlebury College. Karla lives in Bristol, Vermont. Visit her website here.