by Jo Taylor

—After Mark Nepo

Fear wastes air, the poet said,
and he knew. His leukemia-ridden
body knew. But what do you do 
with it? Hide it under a bushel? 
Snuff it out like you would a candle’s
wick? Pound it flat like a thin-tossed pizza
dough? Maybe you drown it with sorrow 
or with a good stiff drink or with total 
immersion in work. Perhaps, just perhaps—
the answer lies in love.

Jo Taylor is a retired, 35-year English teacher from Georgia.  Her favorite genre to teach high school students was poetry, and today she dedicates more time to writing it, her major themes focused on family, place, and faith. She says she writes to give testimony to the past and to her heritage. In 2021 she published her first collection of poems, Strange Fire.  She enjoys walking in early morning, playing with her two grandsons, and collecting and reading cookbooks.