Sometime in Yellowstone
by Karla Linn Merrifield
geysergrizzly
lodgepolerhyolite
sulferwolf
lichenbison
If I do not subside
in Earth’s grand quake
I will become the vapor.
PHOTO: “Sunset, Lower Falls, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming” by SolsticePhoto. Prints available at etsy.com.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: I wrote this gestalt-form poem in situ during a visit to Yellowstone National Park with my late husband in 2009. It was our second visit to the park.
PHOTO: The author at Yellowstone National Park.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Karla Linn Merrifield has had 800+ poems appear in dozens of journals and anthologies. She has 14 books to her credit. Following her 2018 Psyche’s Scroll (Poetry Box Select) is the 2019 full-length book Athabaskan Fractal: Poems of the Far North from Cirque Press. In early 2021, her Half a World of Kisses will be published by Truth Serum Press (Australia) under its new Lindauer Poets imprint. She is currently at work on a poetry collection, My Body the Guitar, inspired by famous guitarists and their guitars; the book is slated to be published in December 2021 by Before Your Quiet Eyes Publications Holograph Series (Rochester, NY). Find her on Twitter @LinnMerrifiel and on Facebook @LinnMerrifiel.
Silver Birch Press 
Karla, I like your language play and Yellowstone!
Not familiar with gestalt-form poems, but loved the idea of sufferwolf and geysergrizzly. And loved the poem too, of course! Carol Stephen