Submission of the month

Misty firs

By Mike Aspros
The Portland Upside
January 2010

Photo by Sandra Milner

In winter, fir trees sing dappling droplets
their pointed needles combed them from fog.
You must only listen as a hundred notes
drop and echo, hitting the paper leaves.
Songs of forgotten words,
you know that they are prayers
that only trees remember
and they tell it to you again.

Mike Aspros is a native of Portland. In addition to writing poetry, he enjoys co-facilitating events within Linnton’s environmental group, and preserving Forest Park while building a community of forest stewardship.

Sandra Milner is a novelist, poet, aspiring photographer, and also a freelance journalist and food advocate.

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Leaf

Poem and photo by Mike Aspros
The Portland Upside
November 2009

A wind gust lifts
a maple leaf from its tree,
it hovers with clouds above the schoolyard,
falls like a heron to a pond—

skillfully without rippling the water.
The leaf lies face down
for many days,
far from the shadow of the tree.

The tree will always bloom new leaves,
but surely less yellow than these.


Mike Aspros is always wandering, looking, skirting the boundary line passing a “No Trespassing” sign following deer and owls through Oregon ash and white oaks. He may be reached at mike_aspros@yahoo.com

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The Numerous You

Poem and photo by Mike Aspros
The Portland Upside
September 2009

You are a Ginkgo leaf that knows its way; letting go,
you trust the ground to catch and hold.

A Swainson’s Thrush stomps dirt for a kernel,
with your weathered endurance of Bristlecone bark.

Like an elder Oak, in its stillness
with winter limbs, and bent elbows,
you embrace the helpless.

As the sun rouses geese from the reeds,
rejoicing, I love, I love, I love,

glowing on your face. People crowd around
and like a Marsh Wren’s outcry
they admire you.

_____

Mike Aspros is a native of Portland. In addition to writing poetry, he enjoys co-facilitating events within Linnton’s environmental group, and preserving Forest Park while building a community of forest stewardship.

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Watching a garden grow

By Mike Aspros
The Portland Upside
July 2009

Many arrived here as Mom did,
she from Fresno,
hands squeezing Oregon
rolled up in a magazine.

We relished firs and rivers,
watching moods of weather flexing colors.
Gaping at buildings spouting like dandelions,
pink and white basalt pillars,
edges of silvery gilt,
a few hovering domed cathedrals.

If I could,
would I flip a switch preventing newcomers?
I’d be the greeting party,
leading a ticker-tape parade raining rose pedals.
The city’s chosen you like a perfect strawberry.
Newcomers are needed to
cultivate the diversity of roses,
making room for new,
majestic things to grow
replenishing smiles.

Mike Aspros is a native of Portland. He enjoys co-facilitating events within Linnton’s environmental group, preserving Forest Park while building a community of forest stewardship, in addition to writing poetry.

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