<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;"><span class="" style="line-height: 28px;">Dear California, I Write to You from Grand Island, New York<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">It is the light in the sky<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">that reminds me of you,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">the summer blue flowing by.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">But the clouds here remind me<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">more of Paris, the calmness of them<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">as though inside a painting.<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">The goldfinches on the feeders<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">no longer flee from me, the cardinals<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">tell me where I live. California,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">am I in denial? Will I miss you <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">when the white snow falls and falls<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">on the quiet island world?<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">If I returned to you, would I miss<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">the train whistle across the river,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">the 10 p.m. fireworks from the Falls,<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">the Niagara that is San Francisco Bay<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">green one day, Monterey blue the next, <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">a rush of ice in early spring that I follow<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">until it crashes, gorgeously, into the gorge<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">to bump along its sonorous path <o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;">until it melts back to its source?<o:p class=""></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 27px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Katherine Hastings</p><div><br></div></div></body></html>