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Pine Row Issue No. 12 Winter 2026 - Featured Poet
A Short Lecture Walking the Orchard
–– After Mary Ruefle
What is dewpoint but
reaching that which is desired?
Drops of moisture gather from
the canal to meet morning’s cool
soil, but on equal terms. Low-lying
fog forms in a soft hug. Its white
hedge slices the open pasture,
emerges as a boundary. A strange
resemblance to the borders in your
heart, marked by years. Insistence
that you see both sides, remember
what you loved in those spaces of
before and after
here. How walking
back on the orchard’s west side,
after the rising sun has lifted and
angles itself, its orb like a pointer
beams from the horizon. Light
columns through and over rows
of almond trees. Their hungry
silhouettes fall in long-reaching
shadows across the green ocean
of alfalfa. You catch treescape
in time that sighs, just as
moment and light shrink
as if to say
open yourself and feel what earth
offers. Language this flux, the heat
and gold of a body spinning, flash
of illumination, rhythm of absence
and longing.
From the Desk of the Poet
From the Desk of the Poet
1. When you revise, what does your process look like—from first pass to final polish?
When I am in a revision stage, sometimes I pare my poems down to bare tercets before taking them back to a more expansive form which helps me carve away to their essence.
2. What’s on your nightstand right now—anything you’re currently reading (or meaning to start)?
I am currently obsessed with Jane Hirshfied's After. I have been drawn to her meditative examination of of the human condition and her "assay" form that uses poetic inquiry to explore concepts and the world around her.
3. When you sit down to write, what’s your writing process—how do you go from idea to finished draft?
Jeanine Walker's "Four Minute Poem" is one way I often begin my writing. Her short but focused "quickwrite" helps me draft ideas that I often take through a full writing process.
4. Anything else we should know - upcoming book, personal website?
My first chapbook, Orchard Language was published in October (Finishing Line Press). My poems highlight the joys of living in –– and being stewards of an almond orchard in Central California.
Kathy Pon lives with her husband and two dogs on an almond orchard in Central California. Her chapbook, Orchard Language (Finishing Line Press) was published in October, 2025. Her poems have been featured in Passengers Journal, Canary, RockPaperPoem, The Closed Eye Open, and other places.
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