Kate Fadick began working seriously as a poet in 2009. Prior to then, she worked with rural and urban Appalachian communities on issues of environmental and economic justice. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Still: The Journal, Indianola Review, Kudzu, Pine Mountain Sand and Gravel, Wind ’97, Blue Lyra Review and other journals. Slipstream, her first chapbook, was released by Finishing Line Press in March, 2013. She lives in Cincinnati, OH with her partner of 25 years.
When Hildegard cannot sleep
she stays up
all night hidden in the branches
only she can see
and when
she tires of darkness
color spills from her eyes
into the wind
the sky fills
with blue flame
gentle as breath
her words
once empty shells
begin to sing
and the sweet ache
rises in my throat
In my dream of Hildegard
we turn to face the worst
our kind can do
our bodies the spinning
death of stars
woven with all that lives
a fragile weft of green
runs dull through her fingers
the yes of her eyes
enough of a prayer
When Hildegard drops
a blue sapphire into her wine…
strobes and circles
fill her mind’s eye
she sings her unresolved
modes breathless
sketches visions on wax
as she sits
on the slash
between either / or