Love Poem

By Duane Niatum b. 1938 Duane Niatum

The twilight of your face,

the unknown bird in your voice,

draws me again to your eyes’ green vision,

your song about that longest

moment, a moon vulnerability,

a Natalie I saw alone,

at Carolyn’s party years ago,

where you called me to your side,

and I held my heart, cupped in shadow,

as an offering to your smile,

our soft-spoken isolation.

Duane Niatum, “Love Poem” from Drawings of the Song Animals: New and Collected Poems. Copyright © 1991 by Duane Niatum. Reprinted by permission of Holy Cow! Press.

Source: Drawings of the Song Animals: New and Collected Poems (Holy Cow! Press, 1991)

Biography

Born Duane McGinness in Seattle, poet, fiction writer, playwright, and editor Duane Niatum adopted the name of one of his S’Klallam tribal ancestors early in his career as a poet. After his parents’ divorce when he was four, he studied S’Klallam tribal ways with his maternal grandfather. At age 17, Niatum joined the Navy and was stationed in Japan. He received a BA from the University of Washington, where he studied with

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