Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Heather Long was raised and educated in Hamilton, Ontario, and is presently living in Studio City, CA.  Following twenty years as a political speech writer for Calgary City Council, and with the help of what she considers guiding hands, she has rekindled a desire to write poetry, and to share it with others.

It is her belief that the healing power of poetry will spread commensurate with the effort individual poets make to share their words, and she is also keenly aware that the responsibility lies with her to create a life that will help make such a vision possible.

Heather's poetry is featured in
a Passage through August's main anthology.

Visit Heather Long at her website Small Reflections  

It Comes to This

A woman flicks a hip in a Ramada Inn
and you take her nipples in your teeth.
Next thing I know, you're sending letters
from Belize, extolling life on the beach,
the wing span of Cecropia moths,
dunes as tropical architecture, and our kids
can't sleep because they're convinced
you're locked in the garage inventing
something with fluorescent skin.

Three months later, a telegram arrives
from someone named Cassandra, reporting
you're laid up with the runs in Cuernavaca --
asks me to send a case of Kaopectate,
your camo-shorts, and the muscle shirt (under
the router in the garage) with the Morigan's
Uterus Tour silk-screened on the front.  I send
the bill for our son's retainer, a roll of one-ply,
and bra-less, wear the shirt to your company picnic.

It comes to this:  I'm left answers
that have no questions, your broken lava lamp,
and an inexplicable desire to teach
my hips to speak Spanish.


© 2001  Heather Long

Free Fall 
(for Jimmy Smith, L.A. Blues Artist/Poet)

You play your last dance
so beautifully it feels like tides
breaking. I hear your blues
inside veins where blood sings
and birds waken with crystal eyes.
My tears flow where you will find
them in our handshake. Crickets
vibrate with your touch.

I take you with me now as memory
and ambrosia for my journey to mountains.
I will share your victory with eagles
who soar poppies into gentleness at dawn.
You free fall off edges and give parachutes
to your promises and chances. Yesterday
is not a number and you steal stone visages
each time you become. The last dance
is just your beginning.


© 1999 Heather Long

wings

this dawn... I watched you
jewel-adorned
and glistening of dew,
spiral to uncharted realms,
reaching with the brightness of your wings
for promises
and dreams
foretold by ancients
of a metamorphosis
that sang
of just these
things. 

all day I waited...
and as the sun
set on your
perfect day of freedom,
the quiet beating of my heart
welcomed you home again
to settle, for a time,
in safe and
shadowed-dappled
corners
of the garden
of my mind.


© 1999 Heather Long