Sandy Coomer

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I’ve scoured the star charts
and still can’t find my place
beneath these wild constellations.
I’ve been blown off course
by solar winds and magnetic
waves of grief. I try to drop
a pin in the body’s GPS—
a steady, steely anchor—
but it drags the sandy bottom
of my decisions and doesn’t
catch. I filter the angle of sunlight
striking moss growing on trees
but still I can’t find my north.
The wind blows from the west
in its channels, the clouds
build and bulge, and I stand
at the edge of the forest
and wait for another storm.
What word can I speak
into the map to recover
a longitude and latitude?
You told me being lost isn’t
always a bad thing. You said
it isn’t necessary to name where
you are, as long as you can
name yourself.

Sandy Coomer is a poet, artist, endurance athlete, and business owner from Nashville, TN. Her poetry and art have been published in numerous online and print journals, and she is the author of three chapbooks and two full-length collections of poetry. She is the director of Rockvale Writers' Colony in middle TN where she offers residencies and retreats to writers of all genres. She is also the founding editor of Rockvale Review, an online journal of writing. Her favorite word is “believe.”