Sam Monroe Olson holds an MFA in Poetry from Oregon State University. Raised in Portland, Oregon with family roots across Montana, he calls both states home. His poetry can be found or is forthcoming in HeartWood Literary Magazine, Portland Review, Radar, and River Heron Review, among others.
Forever, I asked to not be me, but a place instead. Old cedars, devil’s club– little creek, kneel, drink. No years in the berries, just dusk’s breath of gnats, my Thank You like catkins, deer’s wheeze– here, gone, home again. When one trail ended in fireweed, my saw set down in stems, I sat by the rill and said Here…. Read more →
With a break in the rain we would gather behind our fathers and wheelbarrows to fill potholes. Undersides of leaves gazed up from the trapped rain– gravel raked in kicked ruddy clouds like woodsmoke, pillowing until we shoveled them full, the panes capped. Our gravel came from a two yard pile one of our fathers ordered from the quarry himself…. Read more →