and so I didn’t win
the poet laureate position
for the town of Nederland
but my poems
aren’t for the institutions
or the labels
or the prize money
or the clout
my poems are for the wind
the foxes both dead and alive
the spiders in my kitchen
the grandmother pine
off of highway 119
and all the lonely people
fighting off the weather
and the world
in the rusty light
of their wood stoves
my poems are for
my favorite potters who died
for my friends who lost
their businesses in fires
for my friends who lost
what felt like everything this year
my poems are for you
when you really need them
in the end
I started writing
a poem a week
for the newspaper
five years ago
because I wanted to share
a bit of my soul
with the place that made me
I still do
and so here is another

Alexander Shalom Joseph is an award-winning poet, writer and playwright from Gilpin County, and is the author of seven published books. You can find his work and more information about him at www.alexandershalomjoseph.com.