A Poem by Sandra Rokoff-Lizut

My Spirit

To keep it safe for awhile,

I hide my spirit

in the crook of a sycamore tree

like my ancestors did.

Because, now that I'm 

fourteen, my spirit

is growing too wild and unwieldy

for me to carry around

in my back-pack anymore.

Sandra Rokoff-Lizut, retired educator and children's book author (published by Macmillan, Holt, Reinhary & Winston, and Hallmark Inc.), is currently both a printmaker and a poet.  She is a member of Oregon Poetry Association, Mary's Peak Poets, Poetic License, Gertrude's, and a weekly writing salon.  Rokoff-Lizut volunteers, by teaching poetry to middle-schoolers, at the Boys and Girls Club in Corvallis, Oregon.  She also studies poetry at Oregon State University.  Previous publications include Illya's Honey, The Bicycle Review, Wilderness House Review, The Tower Journal, The Penwood Review, and Wild Goose Poetry Review.