The View from Rockriver Hill

My poem, "The King's Dinner" was recently featured in California Baptist University's online publication-- The Dazed Starling: Unbound.  I am always proud to work with my alma mater and I'm honored they chose to feature my poem.  The editors included the first half of the original poem, which can be found here:  https://issuu.com/dazedstarling/docs/_ds_unbound_2023/9 If you'd like the read the entire poem, I will post it below.   The King’s Dinner The phoenix sang her final song, her mournful tune, last night. A song of grief, a song of joy, a song of dark and light.   My king believed the phoenix chick, if served upon his plate, Would grant him immortality, and stave off all man’s fate. Thus in the morning I was sent to find the new-hatched bird. I started forth before the dawn near where her song was heard.   In top of a palmetto, an oasis in a glen, I found her small and trembling in a nest of cinnamon.   I found the blue-eyed fledgling bird a-crying in t