My two smallest are helping me celebrate the arrival of the spring 2025 edition of The California Quarterly by the California State Poetry Society! My poem, "Flow" was featured in this edition. It's an extended metaphor about mothering, or really any stage of life where we feel a little "stuck," but it's all part of God's plan for us. Flow The patch of water flows downstream Beneath the blue cathedral of sky. Moving around bends, winding around rocks, Through arches of trees, Beneath bridges of stone, Burbling, laughing, thundering in its work, Housing fishes and carrying bits of straw— Going ever down, down, downward… Until it stops. Rocks, stones, sticks and branches Formed a dam last fall, Impeding the flow of the water, Frustrating the flow of the water, Stopping the water from following its joy, Its ever-downward flowing. Trapped. Caught. Stagnated In a little pool where the algae thicken, And mosquitoes ...