Poem of the Week

Ellen Bass has published several poetry collections, including Mules of Love, a Lambda Literary Award winner; The Human Line, a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book; Like a Beggar; and Indigo (Copper Canyon Press, 2020). She coedited one of the first anthologies to highlight feminist poetry, the groundbreaking No More Masks! Her nonfiction books include the best-selling The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, translated into ten languages. Among her many awards are three Pushcart Prizes and the Pablo Neruda Prize. A chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Bass teaches in the MFA writing program at Pacific University.

Photograph by Irene Young.

Ode to Repetition

by Ellen Bass

I like to take the same walk

down the wide expanse of Woodrow to the ocean
and most days I turn left toward the lighthouse.
The sea is always different. Some days dreamy,
waves hardly waves, just a broad undulation
in no hurry to arrive. Other days the surf’s drunk,
crashing into the cliffs like a car wreck.
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