Poet
October 2024: Happy to report that Scarlet: A Literary Journal accepted my whole batch of FOUR poems, and Lone Mountain Literary Society accepted TWO!
Excited to be the featured poet at the City of Auburn’s Poetry Night, called Poetry at the Postmark. Reading is on Wednesday, Nov. 6 and starts at 6:30 p.m followed by an open mic from 7 - 8 p.m. Address is 25 W Main Street in Auburn.
I will be the featured poet at Everett Poetry Nights on Monday, May 6.
I will be reading with two other Vashon poets at the bookstore. Date coming soon!
Hosted event for family and friends at Fete in downtown Spokane on March 9, 4 - 8 p.m. Introduction by Alex Kuo. Native American flute by Freddie B.
Penumbra Literary Magazine accepts “My Best Friend’s Mother Paints My Nails”
Kelsay Books will publish “In the Spaces Between Us” in Jan. 2024!
Hobart Literary Magazine published “What the Dark Reveals”. And RAW: Journal of Arts gave “First Morning in Sedona” a home.
I will be reading a poem a day starting on Monday, August 15 on NPR’s The Poetry Moment.
As part of the city’s poet laureate program, a poet kicks off the city council meeting with a poem from a Spokane neighborhood. I am doing this on August 29 and here is my poem.
Spotlong Review took “Feeding Time”’ and Whistling Shade published “Siblings”. Ignatian Literary Magazine took two poems: “The Death Photographer, Mid-1800s” and “On My First Imprint of Womanhood”. And happy to share that Hawaii Pacific Review took “Cartoon Character (or Not). Last, Wildroof Journal gave my poem “Unanswered” a home.
December 2021: Hawaii Pacific Review published “On My First Imprints of Womanhood”
Yvonne will be the featured poet on the Spokane Public Radio Program the week of March 29, 2021.
El Portal took “Grim-Facts Files”; Umbrella Factory took “Sperm Bank for Nobel Prize Winners”; Avalon Literary Magazine will publish “Self Diagnosis”; Better Than Starbucks is taking “Dear Man” and Brief Wilderness published “Walking Shelter Dogs”!
Better Than Starbucks published “Dear Man” and Brief Wilderness accepted my poem “Walking Shelter Dogs”.
Thank you to Gordon Purkis, editor-in-chief of Brief Wilderness, for publishing my poem "Walking Shelter Dogs"!
I am from a turn-of-the-century home,
from radiators and a laundry chute.
I am from the oak tree in the backyard.
I am from dogs and cats and hamsters,
crucifixes on bedroom walls
and rosaries in our pockets.
I am from lemon pepper chicken, from boxed
yellow cake with chocolate frosting.
I am from lake water, calm or stormy.
Year over year, from jack-o’-lanterns’
faces carved alive, and Christmas trees
lighting the living room corner.
I am from conversations about politics
and religion, from justice-driven relatives,
the Irish famine still deep in their souls.
I’m from O’Driscolls, O’Geraghtys, and O’Higgins clans,
from potatoes cooked every which way.
From the sister who died at 24
in a car accident, from parents who
placed the board across the creek so we could cross.
When I drive through the old neighborhood
past my house, my schools, the parks
and St. Augustine’s Church tethered to the hilltop,
somehow the passage of time is okay,
knowing I am from such a place,
such a people.
HONORING MEADOWBROOK
for Cora
Up against the wetland forest
where bands of light fuse with frosty grass,
the bull’s crown of points cuts the sky
like a lapidary cuts stone.
My daughter, new to this small town,
has found the meadow where the elk herd thrives.
This birthplace of the Snoqualmie Tribe.
This Hyas Kloshe Ilahee,
their “great good land.”
Close enough, we see the bull’s exhalation spill
into visible air, others lay their bodies
of thick smooth fur into the earth,
and some graze to fatten up
for the harsh winter ahead.
No haunting bugle, no ritualized rut,
just benevolent existence—
this first witnessing together
of what is holy.
What cannot last
is still a blessing.
The minute we drive away
we make room for this
new song in our hearts.
I read with other contributors published in Issue 25 of Sin Fronteras on May 15 from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. PDT
Poetry Reading was via Zoom
The poem will appear in their upcoming 2021 issue
I had a productive year with 23 poems finding homes in 13 print and online journals.
