Award winning poet Rita S. Spalding | Prominent American poets

Rita S. Spalding 

Crow Diamonds

an old crow bought real estate
on his bony right shoulder
black fedora was a velvet nest
specks of gray were diamonds
raincoat with hidden magic seeds
home by six o’clock every evening
the crow his alarm clock
cawing away the hours
 
a stream swallows the earth
black locusts and honeysuckle
dividing the trails of old
southern magnolias scenting paths
old black crow leads again
to fedoras and raincoats
thin veil of time separates
pecking from a pocket

Sonnet of Aspens in the Fall

spirit guides of the great corn moon
they dance when shadows move their hooves
freedom racers searching for life
sound of heartbeats below the earth 
 
tall white aspens where music floats
and quaking leaves hold journied hands
grayed manes and ears are calm with grace
they stop to watch the fires ahead
 
and in the open burning ghosts
who feebly search for clonal roots
divine message with room to grow
awakenings emerge from truth
 
where horses stand to honor grass
white butterflies are born in bark
 

Gift

you are
each of us is
someone else’s
abundance
today
 
let that soak
your mile
one word
your eyes
looking back
 
at who we are
each of us is
the miracle of
abundance
yes we are

Echoes

all of energy loves
flower in the stoney wall
 
her beauty grows bigger
she sings to the sun of her love
 
earth feels the love of its rain
drumming across his tight desert skins
 
his massive browns darks clays
we  are all pieces of rain and earth
 
snakes trees grass and all who touch 
bodies trace against and with their grains
 
we are the rain earth flower and the wall itself
stretching toward love wherever it grows
 
fire of life feeds us presses our palms and plays
even this is beautiful even this is love
 

 The Cold Winds of Winter

my mind wants a vacation
away from the reality that seems unreal
back to sand and beach between my toes
where the only worries are if i left my black sunglasses
with the meaningless romance book i brought along
and the wonder if there would be a golden sunset
to match the pure white sunrise of morning
it is winter when days are short
 
evening comes in the afternoon darkness
yesterday was cold and today is even colder
it is not the thermometer but instead our icy climate
rambling haters are heroes though they pillage and kill
reward with freedom and give them guns to do it again
superiority means babies are torn from raped mothers
to keep us safe from taking the jobs we don’t even want
and becoming a citizen is forever unreachable
 
i don’t understand what is great about all of this
two children shot in nashville today barely made a sound
the irony of antioch where paul first spread the word
is death muted in the name of our amended triggered rights
are lives only important when tagged with brand names and teslas
i only know that frost has frozen blindness in place of summer sand
and i want a vacation when being present in the winds of  winter
has never been more important than in the darkness of these days
 

Award winning poet Rita S. Spalding has been published in 18 Calliope anthologies, National Library of Poetry, AX-POW Magazine, The Heartland Review, Kentucky Monthly Magazine, Keeping the Flame Alive, Fallen, Rebirth, The Rye Whiskey Review, Walden’s Poetry and Reviews, Poet-Tree Magazine, American Poet, Mays Publishing and Kentucky Humanities. Her books include Abstract Ribbons, What is Beauty, and The Eighth.

She has been featured in numerous podcasts and the Kentucky Author Celebration, Kentucky Writer Celebration, Insomniacathon, Vagabond Poet National Tour, Endless Horizon, and 2025 Ohio Valley Folkways Symposium. She gives poetry readings regionally and nationally and will be a part of the 2026 Gonzofst in New York Ci. Her akphraistic poetry has been exhibited alongside Indiana artist Crystal Carol. Her poetry also appears in the Madison, IN, Poetry in Windows Project.