Susan Moorhead

Susan Moorhead writes poetry and stories and works as a children's librarian in New York. She's happy to have managed to always be surrounded by books. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals, and been nominated four times for a Pushcart prize. Her collections include The Night Ghost, published with Finishing Line Press, and Carry Darkness, Carry Light published by Kelsay Books. Recent work includes poetry in Autumn Sky Daily, Panoply, Swing, Gyroscope Review, and Crowstep Journal.

November 2019: The Origami Poems Project nominated Things that are lost from Susan Moorhead's microchap 'Lost and Found' for a Pushcart Prize. Each year the OPP selects 6 poems to nominate for this distinction.

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► Susan's microchaps & selected poems are available below.

Origami Microchaps
Fairy Tale
Click title to download microchap Cover: 'Sturgeon Moon' by author	Night Noise In the attic room, there are moons rolling around the creaking wood floors. Half moons, crescent moons, full moons, Strawberry, Wolf, Hunter, set adrift by forgotten wishes, wish I may, wish I might, no one any longer makes a wish at night. So the moon took all its selves, its waxed light and face of secrets, up to our attic room leaving the shores bewildered without the coming and going of tides, and magic without a place to pin all those hopes and dreams.	Kindred Would I know you as kindred when I met you? We pass so many on the street, at the job, in the market. Would I know you as kindred as you reached past me for that carton of almond milk? Would we say “excuse me” and turn away? • Susan Moorhead © 2024
Lost and Found
Click title to download microchap Cover photo by author	Things that are lost My heart. Two souls. My favorite huarache sandals. A sketchbook in France. Innocence, and the desire to sin. One earring only. The belief in consequences. Two parents, innumerable relatives. My passport. The ability to sleep. The sweetness of my children when young. Letters and photographs shredded. Thinking there's enough time.	Things that are found Pennies on the pavement. A tortoiseshell cat. God in the trees and diamonds in the ashes. Gratitude, hard won. The wonder of adults who were once my children. Hope, again and again like a flying bird. A long road of love. Quietude, and the gifts of solitude. Learning how to finish. Learning how to not finish. My heart. • Susan Moorhead © 2019
Color Theories
Click title to save, download & print microchap Cover art by Lauri Burke •	Yellow In this third life, trying to find my dandelion purpose. Some chlorophyll miracle, something perennial, not annual in the scheme of things. Common wonders these miniature suns, let these brave little scrubs be the gifts I offer my strange angels, to show I am willing to learn how to change from shine to seed, to close my eyes and lean into the wind, go where it carries me. • Susan Moorhead © 2018	White Cirrus, cumulus, fractus, cirrostratus. Take a moment. Ease into the prongs of new grass until it bends to accept you. Release your agenda and every thought in your head. Gaze up, unfettered. We are passengers here, carried like the clouds and birds on the turning wheel. Small wonder it's called a revolution.
Notes for the Journey
Click title to save, download & print microchap Cover art by Lauri Burke •	Gaze On these darkling nights five hundred years or longer, ceilings give way to the dark brushwork of firs, a glimpse of star-flecked sky. Earlier I thought, I have not participated enough in this world. • Susan Moorhead © 2017	Hourglass We are clock watchers. Measurers. Doling out the days by hours and small breaths. Time wrapping around us like a winching cord. I've grown three inches in an afternoon.

Poets