C.M. Rivers

"The point of being an artist is that you may live." ~ Sherwood Anderson

Journal

  • Christmas Walk

    Christmas Walk

    You slip outside, leave the commotion behind. Your pantlegs brush your thighs,   it sounds like a downhill skier. It’s not that you thrive on neglect, just that you prefer your own company to anyone’s. You walk just long enough for roses to bloom in your cheeks, for all thought to be swept away in Read more

  • Along The Way: Poems for the Wayward

    Along The Way: Poems for the Wayward

    2024 Nautilus Silver Medal Winner “A stunning collection that embraces both the sensuality and the profound meaning of small moments.”  –Kirkus Reviews Read more

  • Digesting Memories: Of Food and Family

    Digesting Memories: Of Food and Family

    “In the archipelago of habitual behavior, sometimes we island-hop, sometimes we get stranded.” Read more

  • Geese Flying Over

    Geese Flying Over

    It’s the middle of January, what are you doing here? I ask this of both myself and the geese as I rise to the shallows of dreaming and break the surface. Oh, right, they’re Canadian. This is south for them, and my own reasons are not so simple. It is a lonesome sound, their squawking, Read more

  • Valentine ~ A Love Letter to V

    Valentine ~ A Love Letter to V

    You’ve lived here for time out of mind, between u and w, given of yourself, yet been grievously overlooked toward the back of the line, fifth-to-last, always in twenty-second place. Without you, no love, no forgiveness, no reverie. No vertigo, velvet, voodoo. Verses, violins, viticulture. No need for vaccinations, because – no viruses or variants. Read more

  • Peace I Leave With You

    Peace I Leave With You

    May you ever walk in kindness, be it a walk of haste or of leisure – peace I leave with you. If you find gold in the stream may you throw it back – peace I leave with you. May your hands be generous, your words be ever gentle – peace I leave with you. Read more