Northern California
by Rage Hezekiah
You stood at the edge
of the stone fruit orchard
while I scaled the ladder,
a picking basket against
my belly, brimming
with shiny-ripe plums.
Father, you came
to California willing
to farm at my side,
practiced shattered
Spanish with men
I’d befriended. When
I left after lunch
to get high, you never
said a word about
the workday. You
let me be guiltless
& young. On the weekend
we cruised the 101,
ate green tea ice cream
beneath eucalyptus—
air salted sweet. We
wandered Muir Beach
in tranquil awe, until
surf chased us back
toward the dunes,
pants heavy-wet,
both laughing. Before
you learned to swim
& I learned black joy—
we doubled over
taunting each crested
broken wave, at play
with an ancient tide—
wide grins agleam
in the sun.
From Yearn. Diode Editions, 2022.
Reprinted with permission.
Read this and other poems by Rage Hezekiah in Northern California, available for purchase online.
It can be useful, of course, for us to hold onto instants of joy and connection when they happen in the moment. We can pause, truly take them in, and allow them to stay, instead of turning away from those bursts of deeper happiness. Yet it’s also possible, as Rage Hezekiah illustrates so beautifully in her poem, to look back at certain times in our lives and relive the “guiltless” pleasure that we felt then. Here, a visit from her father—with whom we sense things have not always been easy—allows for the “tranquil awe” of playing in the ocean together, all past tensions having fallen away. I love the honesty of this clear-eyed poem, especially when the speaker says: “When I left after lunch to get high, you never said a word about the workday. You let me be guiltless & young.” Perhaps that sense of permission between father and daughter did not always exist, yet during this visit, they seem to have developed the mutual respect that can come when we embrace family and friends for exactly who they are, without judgment or expectation—which is to say: when we love them unconditionally. Hezekiah’s poem, with its shorter, musical lines and many line breaks, also works to slow down time, as she relishes the joyful specifics of these memories with her father.
Invitation for Writing & Reflection: Can you recall a time when you were offered a brief reprieve from tensions with a family member or friend, and both of you were able to feel joyful together again? See if you can recreate that moment in your life, slowing down time as Rage Hezekiah does here, and including as many specifics as you can.
ABOUT THE POET: Rage Hezekiah
Rage Hezekiah is a New England-based poet and educator, who earned her MFA from Emerson College. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, MacDowell, and The Ragdale Foundation, and is the recipient of the Saint Botolph Foundation’s Emerging Artists Award. Her poems have been anthologized, co-translated, and published internationally. She is the author of the chapbooks, Stray Harbor and Unslakable, and her latest book is Yearn, published by Diode Editions. You can find more of her work at ragehezekiah.com.
POETRY SELECTION AND COMMENTARY BY JAMES CREWS
James Crews is the author of four collections of poetry: The Book of What Stays, Telling My Father, Bluebird, and Every Waking Moment. He is also the editor of two anthologies: Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, The Sun, and have been reprinted in Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry and featured on Tracy K. Smith’s podcast, The Slowdown. James teaches at SUNY-Albany and lives with his husband in Vermont.
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