TARA MESALIK MACMAHON
Tara Mesalik MacMahon is the winner of the 2024 James Hearst Poetry Prize (North American Review). Her debut collection, Barefoot Up the Mountain, won the Open Country Press Chapbook Contest. Her poems also appear in Nimrod, Poet Lore, Jabberwock Review, Red Hen Press’s New Moons and elsewhere. Tara calls an island in the Salish Sea home, where she lives with her husband and their rescue dog.
with her teeth of beautiful ruins,
teeth of mosque and minaret shards,
sweet cardamom pods at the bottom of her tea.
Camus once said, “the purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.”
Perhaps then, one of the tasks of the poet is to articulate/illuminate the peace and forgiveness for which we are capable.
November 25, 2024