About Victoria Ford
Victoria Ford has lived in Seattle for almost two decades. She earned her B.A. in English from Ohio Wesleyan University and her M.A. in English and creative writing from Indiana University. Her poems have appeared in publications such as Abraxas, The Wisconsin Academy Review, Gamut, and Petroglyph. Her chapbooks include Following the Swan (Fireweed Press, Madison, WI: 1988) and Rain Psalm (Rose Alley Press, Seattle, WA: 1996). A former part-time English instructor at Seattle Central Community College and Antioch University Seattle, she currently works as an instructional designer for an educational software company.
Nominated by Rose Alley Press
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Rose Alley Press primarily publishes books of rhymed metrical poetry and an annually updated booklet about writing, publishing, and marketing. Founded in 1995 by Seattle poet David D. Horowitz, Rose Alley Press has to date published twelve titles. These include individual titles from Seattle-area poets William Dunlop, Victoria Ford, Donald Kentop, Douglas Schuder, Michael Spence, and Joannie Kervran Stangeland. Our most recent title is Limbs of the Pine, Peaks of the Range, an anthology featuring poems from twenty-six of the finest poets of the Pacific Northwest. Poets featured include Victoria Ford, our company's 2007-2008 Poet Populist Nominee.
KNOWING
by Victoria Ford
"If we are saying that the loss of species in and of itself is inherently bad--I don't think we know enough about how the world works to say that."
-- Craig Manson, Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks
Los Angeles Times, November 14, 2003
how webbed forepaws
of polar bears
fathom the Arctic
how the Western Grebe
sails, its neck a rudder
through sunset and sea
how we grasp, having gorged
at lunch, for the slick
supper of oil
how the heart
of one caribou
quicksteps herd
how the drill
of market catches
in the throat
how wings of eagles
updraft seeing
a globe of air
how light flies down
sun into cell and cell
dawning on the world.