Iris Jamahl Dunkle: “Moonlight: A Sonnet for Pat”
MOONLIGHT: A SONNET FOR PAT
When I think of you now, you are a moon,
No. you are the moonlight that pools on snow
like a pearl lake. You are the moonlight caught
in the snow-clad pines. You are the silence
that seals the forest of trees in a jar.
You are the snow that gently falls when you
shake that jar. You are a sonnet spoken
to the slur of stars seen through dark branches
above the snow-covered forest floor. How
I wish there was more. How I wish I
could still find you outside of the books you’ve
left behind. How I wish you’d arrive. Crunch
of snow beneath your boots. Body warmed by
coat and hat. How I wish you’d walk toward me.
Iris Jamahl Dunkle is an award-winning literary biographer, essayist, and poet. Dunkle wrote the first full-length biography on Charmian London, Jack London’s wife, Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 2020. Her fourth collection of poems, West : Fire : Archive was published by The Center for Literary Publishing in 2021. Dunkle teaches at Napa Valley College and is the Poetry and Translation Director of the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference.