Cristina Norcross

CONTACT:
Website: cristinanorcross.com
Email: bookndz@yahoo.com

BIO:
Cristina M. R. Norcross lives in Wisconsin with her husband and two sons. She is the founding editor of the online poetry journal, Blue Heron Review, and the co-founder of Random Acts of Poetry and Art Day (celebrated annually on February 20th).  Author of 10 poetry collections, a multiple Pushcart Prize nominee, and an Eric Hoffer Book Award nominee, her most recent book is The Poetry Apothecary (Kelsay Books, 2024).  Cristina’s poems have been published widely in online and print journals.  She has also been published in numerous anthologies.  Cristina has helped organize community art and poetry projects, has led creative writing workshops, and has hosted many open mic readings.  She facilitates the online writing prompt group, Connection & Creativity in Challenging Times, on Facebook.  Cristina was featured in the Poem-A-Day series for the Academy of American Poets in 2021.  Most recently, you can find her work in the James Crews anthology, The Wonder of Small Things (Storey Publishing, 2023) and the anthology series boxed set, A Boxful of Poetry (Storey Publishing, 2024), alongside notable poets, Ada Limón, Joy Harjo, Ted Kooser, Jane Hirshfield, Kimberly Blaeser, Mark Nepo, and others.  Find out more: www.cristinanorcross.com

PUBLICATIONS:
The Poetry Apothecary (2024); Kelsay Books, order here
The Sound of a Collective Pulse (2021); Kelsay Books, order here
Beauty in Broken Places (2019); Kelsay Books, order here
Still Life Stories (2016); Kelsay Books, order here
Amnesia and Awakenings (2016); Local Gems Press, order here
Living Nature's Moments: A Conversation Between Poetry and Photography (2014), with co-author Patricia Bashford; Vox Novus Press (out of print, copies still available here)
The Red Drum (2013), order here
The Lava Storyteller (2013), Red Mare Press (out of print)
Unsung Love Songs (2010), order here
Land & Sea: Poetry Inspired by Art (2007), with co-author artist Irene Ruddock; (out of print, copies still available here)

(*SIGNED copies of most books available at Books & Company, Oconomowoc, WI)

Poetry

You are Earth
You are not living on Earth.  You are Earth.  
Nature is not matter only.  She is also spirit.

—Carl Jung

You are the pulse of the soil’s veins.
You are the wriggling earnestness of the worm.
Water shoots up your stems.
You stand tall, leaves fanning out,
a glistening, life force energy. 

A connected universe of intricate patterns,
human, plant, mammal, fish—
our hands embrace all elements
as we exist from root to tip
within branch song,
within the river’s melody.

We hold life in our arms,
in our palms,
in our open wound hearts.

You are every star’s last burst of light.
You are cosmos and ocean floor creature.
You are the smallest cell that begins 
with nothing but the will to expand 
and grow exponentially.

Your feathered form
once came from another land.
Your soul’s birthplace waits for your return to source.
Until that sacred reunion,
let the clouds tremble with your thunder,
let the grass know you feel every brush of skin.
Feel the world, hold tenderly the globe.

(*First published by the Lothlorien Poetry Journal, July/2022); published in The Poetry Apothecary (Kelsay Books, 2024)

Everything Becomes Again
 
Everything becomes undone—
the dishes in the cupboard,
the neatly folded laundry,
the tidiness of tomorrow’s plans.

Everything you’ve carefully put away
will end up in a tangled mess
on the living room floor—
those muddied boots,
your pale pink humility,
your rash of grief,
your vulnerable, weary self.

Everything will catch up with you—
that late night of screen time,
those white, powdered donuts,
that trip you always meant to take,
those words you swallowed whole,
that neglected ulcer.

Everything will be OK, I promise—
the lack you carry in a black velvet pouch,
the hurt you wear, like a tattoo sleeve,
the ache you cannot fill with earth.

Everything becomes again—
the hope-filled you from 1995,
the green of the backyard
where the snapping turtle strolls,
the new leaf you
still stretching in the soil.
Everything, everything becomes again.

Published in The Poetry Apothecary (Kelsay Books, 2024)