Sandy Stark

CONTACT:
Email: sestark@wisc.edu
Tel: 608-358-9804

BIO:
Sandy Stark, Madison, Wisconsin, has taught college literature and communication classes, including nature literature while rafting in Colorado. She is now retired. She lives within walking distance of lakes, woods, and the UW Arboretum, and within driving distance of refuges and conservation areas. She's sure she has it all: time to write, bird, and volunteer.

PUBLICATIONS:
The World I Love (Beaver Moon Press, 2026)
Counting on Birds (Fireweed Press, 2010)
The Toolbox Poems (Finishing Line Press, 2015)
Home Base (Fireweed Press, 2019)

Poetry

The World I Love

I choose this world, this flailing,
failing one, the one I am in now,
with my complicated and sure
to break down old body, my mind
and heart my own. No need
for any kind of dictated living,
no urge for ostentatious gain.
Still, in spite of our carelessness,
our own sun rises, brave birds
sing out each morning from our
fields, forests, and waterways,
choose to sing again at sunset,
again in the thickness of night.
My world spins in a far corner
of an incredible, crowded universe,
one hazy dot on a wrinkled scrim.

Goodfellow Air Force Base

When I was in high school, going out
meant cruising at drive-in restaurants.
First the girls arrived, then the boys—
separately, crammed in their cars.

And how we worked at it—flirt, drive away,
return to order something— a shake,
steak fingers, onion rings. Or walk
around a little, always with our group.

Then the GI’s showed up. We noticed
their foreign sports cars, their crisp,
khaki uniforms, how they winked at us
with that You know we’re going somewhere
more interesting than here look in their eyes.

I pretended to enjoy it, but always chose
my car mates carefully. We had to swear
we’d stick together, never leave our car
for someone else’s, keep reminding each
other that we were going somewhere, too.

~from Home Base, Fireweed Press, 2019