"Cicadas at El Pindal Caves" The sun delivers opals to the morning sky. Cicadas, high up in eucalyptus, drum their success-resurrected from the underworld, from dank earth and root sap........... "Vespers" .....I stroke the earth's curve, your ribs and valleys, then alond the thoracic spine. Mist collects in your sternal notch. My tongue fills the hollow above your collarbone. Sharon M. Carter sharoncarter@hotmail.com http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Styx/6307 PO Box 3615 Silverdale, WA 98383 Small Press Publications: Raven Chronicles / Exhibition / Signals TapJoe / Beyond Parallax / Psychiatric Times Mediphors / Synapse / Women's Work Vemillion Literary Project / Manastash Dream Machine / Woman Place Poets West Literary Journal E-zines: Melic Review, The Horsethiefs Journal / Switched on Gutenberg Member of Washington Poets Assoc. Board Member of Poetspeak, Seattle Book Reviews: Clinical Journal of Gerontology Poets West Literary Journal Public Readings (by invitation) Seattle Love of Life Poets Poetspeak She has won cash awards in all three categories of the Washington Poets Association annual contest. Born in Lancashire, England of Irish heritage. Medical degree 1973 from Girton College, Cambridge University. Trainee in Family Practice, Board certified in Psychiatry. Member of the Royal college of Psychiatrists. Immigrated 1979, living in rural Kitsap County for the last fourteen years on a small farm with two daughters and various small animals. I became interested in poetry after reading Middlebrook's biography of Anne Sexton where the interaction of the poet's inner life and her work is apparent. My first poem was published in 1994, with encouragement from a friend. I have been unable to stop writing since. I think my scientific background is apparent in many of my poems and is part of my poetic voice. I am fascinated by the idea of influencing another's point of view of the world with my own and hope I achieve this at times. I have a chapbook containing my own artwork and am working on another. In these I try to convey visually what cannot be expressed in words or complement the writing. I am an avid foreign movie watcher and am powerless against books. I love the combination of Seattle's proximity with opportunities for backpacking, skiing and kayaking. I would not live anywhere else.