Writer in San Francisco, CA
Crisp air pulls across chrysanthemum curls,
a glance, a brace against a rusted streetlight, smoke swirls
from plush lips, she is everything but what she is not.
Aqua moon sinks low into the mosaic Bay, night bleeding
into the fog to press against silky skin, wet and glistening.
A hint of liquor lingers on breath, a steady indulgence of
downers to saturate the ache.
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She slips into something more comfortable, a beaming
grin with sly eyes and slinks towards the edge of the
water. A toe in the icy blue, a shiver up her leg. Today is
the day the sirens scream will alert everyone. Today is
the day, the froth of clouds above will become the
canvass to a scene of despair below. She untangles her
bikini and inches into the water, drowning out the sounds
of the children playing, the people laughing on the beach with
each sloshing step. Closer, closer to the depths, another shiver races
up her spine to rest at the base of her neck like a necklace of ice.
She takes in a breath, but not too big, shudders, and dives into the black.
Today, I published “A Collection of Pandemic Poems.” This collection is FREE and can be Downloaded or Printed at flipsnack.com. I will be ordering a small batch of printed copies which I plan on sending to those I dedicated this collection to.
A Collection of Pandemic Poems
by Alina Happy Hansen
In March 2020, I was laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While I was unemployed, I wrote poems for friends and family that gave me compensation in return. This collection is comprised of those poems and is solely dedicated to them.
Last year was a wild ride. I was unemployed for months during the beginning of the pandemic. I spent eight or more hours a day searching for remote work, applying to jobs, refining my resume, and blogging. In the end, I applied to over 450 jobs before I found a full-time remote position.
During that time, I decided to write personal poems for $, and the response was incredible. Friends and family reached out and ordered poems in exchange for any amount of compensation they wanted to give.
Each poem took me hours to create, from writing various drafts to blending my handwritten poem with carefully crafted designs on cardstock. The poems were framed with unique art, hand-colored, and then mailed to the recipient.
These poems are one-of-a-kind unique pieces. I decided not to include scanned copies of the originals in this collection because I felt those belonged solely to the friends and family I made them for.
For the past few months, I had working on how to publish this collection. In the beginning, I was going to design an entire zine by hand and then make copies the old-fashioned way (using a copier in a print shop). I realized going that route was time-consuming and would waste paper products. I then settled on formatting the collection into a digital zine which turned into this, a flipbook! I chose Flipsnack because it was easy to use, and it gave me complete control over editing the essential elements.
Now that I’ve completed this goal, I am refocusing on editing the first five chapters of the novel I’ve been working on for the last few years. It’s been a very long and tedious journey, but I love my book and am committed to fine-tuning it as close to perfection as possible.
Starting next month, I will participate in a Fiction and Poetry workshop by The Writers Studio in San Francisco. This course is fully remote and takes eight weeks to complete. I am so excited to be in another workshop! I think I miss being in school. (I’ve already begun to research out Master’s programs in San Francisco).
I want to say thank you to all of my friends and family that made this collection possible. I really can’t say it enough. Without your continuous support of my writing, I honestly don’t think I would be where I am now. It means the world to me that such incredible people support me.
Thank you!
The sea slides along the beach,
pushing and pulling. The white froth
gathers, settling on the sand littered
with broken shells, kelp, and the cracked
half-eaten carcasses of crabs. The deep note of
the fog horn covers the rhythmic rushing of the waves.
A seagull cries. The horizon stretches on.
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On August 29th, I participated in the 2021 Utah Arts Festival as a Literary Artist. I read about twenty minutes of poetry, a blend of works in progress, poems written in workshops, and a few pieces that I dredged up from documents I’d long forgotten.
I attempt to crack jokes during my poetry readings to lighten the mood. That’s why you’ll notice these photos of me are a little silly. I usually find that sometimes people can get quickly bored at poetry events, especially if they’re hearing one poet after another reading pretty heavy stuff. This has led me to attempt to “wake up” my audience. I’m still working on how to perfect this process.
The UAF was a packed event on a hot summer’s day in Salt Lake City. The air was hazy from the wildfire smoke trapped in the valley by the mountains, leaving a slight aftertaste in the mouth and an underlying scent everywhere. Besides the smoke, the ongoing Pandemic appeared to be an afterthought for most people in SLC. I saw very few people downtown and at the UAF wearing masks or social distancing. Masks have been recommended for people outdoors because the air quality is so poor.
I want to say thank you to UAF, those in charge of the Literary performances, and everyone that attended my reading. I had a wonderful time sharing a selection of my poems and engaging with my audience.
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