2 Poems by Ute Carson

The House of Childhood


We return to the place

where we first heard voices,

smelled the air and tasted nourishment,

where hands caressed or frightened us,

where comfort was our cocoon

or neglect made us shiver.

The tears of harm are cold,

the tears of joy warm as a lagoon.

We carry the house of childhood within us,

and spying through its translucent walls

we keep life at a distance-or embrace it.



Not Night Yet 


It is evening, the night still at bay,

still time to stroll with a loved one

through a colorful garden

as leaves begin to fall

or to pluck an apple or two

from an overripe orchard.

Before sunrays fade to darkness

a few daylight hours remain

to recall stories about a life

shared, complex and rich.


Bionote

A writer from youth and an M.A. graduate in comparative literature from the University of Rochester, German-born Ute Carson published her first prose piece in 1977.  Colt Tailing, a 2004 novel, was a finalist for the Peter Taylor Book Award.  Carson’s story “The Fall” won Outrider Press’s Grand Prize and appeared in its short story and poetry anthology A Walk Through My Garden, 2007.  Her second novel In Transit was published in 2008. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and magazines in the US and abroad. Carson’s poetry was featured on the televised Spoken Word Showcase 2009, 2010 and 2011, Channel Austin, Texas. A poetry collection, Just a Few Feathers was published in 2011. The poem “A Tangled Nest of Moments” placed second in the Eleventh International Poetry Competition 2012. Her chapbook Folding Washing was published in 2013 and her collection of poems My Gift to Life was nominated for the 2015 Pushcart Award Prize. Save the Last Kiss, a novella, was published in 2016.  Her new poetry collection Reflections was out in 2018. She received the Ovidiu-Bektore Literary Award 2018 from the Anticus Multicultural Association in Constanta, Romania. In 2018 she was nominated a second time for the Pushcart Award Prize by the Plain View Press.

Ute Carson resides in Austin, Texas with her husband. They have three daughters, six grandchildren, a horse and a clowder of cats. www.utecarson.com