“THERE’S NO THROUGH TRAIL” —HAN-SHAN, TRANSLATED BY GARY SNYDER

Two Poems

by Katrinka Moore

Issue: Fall/Winter 2020 Special Issue on the Undiscovered

Shelter

Uncertainty’s our home
now as it always was

The trail’s unmade a few
cairns remain

Notched bones
unreadable

Tracks too cold
to follow

This solitude makes me
want to wrap up
in quietness

leave humans aside
for a while mind water
and stone wind

Listen to the author

Why is there so much beauty

What keeps us earth life
handful of sweet notes hidden

thrush glint of lowering
sun on a rain-brushed stone

Slow-moving calamity
quickens flourishes

Hieroglyphs on scraps of molted
bark Bones of warriors

This is not our world
with trees in it Latecomers

we believe it was all made
for us misunderstand

the nature of give and take Unwilling
to relinquish our hold

A scourge spreads Buried
dread a dream calls up

It’s not quite a song the same
few notes over and over

Note:
Title is a question posed by Manu Prakash, quoted by James Gorman in The New York Times. This is not our world with trees in it is from Richard Powers.

Listen to the author

About Katrinka Moore

Katrinka Moore is the author of three books — Wayfarers, Numa, and Thief — and a chapbook, This is Not a Story, winner of the New Women’s Voices Prize. She has recent poems and artwork appearing/forthcoming in Otoliths, Terrain, Wild Roof, and Hole in the Head Review. Along with her mentee in the PEN American Prison Writing Program, she was awarded the 2020 L’Engel-Rahman Prize for Mentorship. https://katrinkamoore.weebly.com/

Cold Mountain Review is published once a year in the Department of English at Appalachian State University. Support from Appalachian’s Office of Academic Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences enables CMR’s learning and publications program. The views and opinions expressed in CMR do not necessarily reflect those of university trustees, administration, faculty, students, or staff.

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