{"id":69354,"date":"2023-10-01T07:21:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T13:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=69354"},"modified":"2023-10-01T08:27:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-01T14:27:35","slug":"three-poems-by-patrick-ramsay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/three-poems-by-patrick-ramsay\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Poems by Patrick Ramsay"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Patrick Ramsay is a queer Utah-based poet who was raised in and along the wetlands of the Great Salt Lake. He earned his B.A. in English & creative writing at Weber State University, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of Metaphor Literary Journal. He owns Happy Magpie Book & Quill, an independent pay-what-you-can bookshop in Ogden, Utah, where he frequently hosts literary arts events. His poems focus on land, heart, and community in the West, and they have appeared in Gwarlingo, NPR, Hyacinth Magazine, Halophyte Magazine, LQ Magazine, QSaltLake, Sink Hollow, The Standard-Examiner, and more. You can find more of Patrick\u2019s work in his debut poetry chapbook, \u201cButterflies are Rare in Beehives\u201d or on Instagram<\/a>\u00a0and at patrickramsaypoet.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ode to Antelope Island Becoming a Peninsula<\/h3>\n

Oh, seahorse mountain,
\nfilleted lake underbelly,
\nbrine shrimp nursery.
\nYou are the Great Salt Lake\u2019s
\nmost potent surprise. You belong
\nto another planet, but here you are,
\nall antler and wing and salt crystal,
\npalming winter like a demi-god.
\nThey call you a wildlife preserve,
\na sanctuary for western legends.
\nThe pronghorn, stoic bison,
\nhobbling porcupine, the sharp
\nand cursive meadowlark.
\nWhen I was a teenager
\nwho wanted to become dirt,
\nI found reasons to preserve
\nmy animal body along your trails.
\nThe cottontail rabbits who trust
\ntoo much at sunset. The gulls
\nwho take me to the ocean
\nwhen I shut my eyes. The gold
\ngold grass at the end of a storm\u2019s
\ntongue. The gory neon sky.
\nWhen lightning licks
\nthe crooks of you, I mourn.
\nI call my mom. We both talk
\nabout you like our favorite neighbor.
\nWant to bring you a casserole
\nwhen the wildfire ends;
\nWant to make a little sacrifice
\nto the god of tomorrow for you.
\nWhen someone you love is dying,<\/em>
\nyou stay with them.<\/em> So, here I am.
\nJust like you were. Melting snow
\nin my cupped hands, carrying
\nit to your parched mouth,
\ntrying to reciprocate
\nthe act of sanctuary.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where the Wetlands Went<\/h3>\n

If you too grew up on the edge
\nof a cornfield that is now a strip mall,
\nyou might remember dirt clod wars
\nand the smell of garter snakes.
\nTheir oily garden belch
\ndistinct, defiant, and millipedent.
\nTheir promenades through strawberry
\npatches and rendezvous on warm grass.
\nOccasionally reckless enough to be flattened
\nlike fruit leather on the fresh coiling asphalt
\nof a new suburb swallowing a small town whole.<\/h4>\n

If you too grew up in the salted
\nwetlands where the highway ends,
\nyou might remember the sulphuric smut
\nof incoming storms. The matted air
\nof decaying brine flies and bison musk.
\nThe seagull\u2019s na\u00efve duet with the Air Force
\nbase drill sirens. You might remember
\nsilhouettes of teething steeples trying
\ntheir best to censor the western sun.
\nYou might even remember the lake.
\nThe way it used to be a mirror.
\nThe way it used to be alive.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Confluence of Hands<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patrick Ramsay is a queer Utah-based poet who was raised in and along the wetlands of the Great Salt Lake. He earned his B.A. in English & creative writing at Weber State University, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of Metaphor Literary Journal. He owns Happy Magpie Book & […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1566,"featured_media":69355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,2513],"tags":[4358,2293],"class_list":["post-69354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary-arts","category-read-local-first","tag-patrick-ramsay","tag-poetry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image_50409985-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-24 10:48:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69354"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69382,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69354\/revisions\/69382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}