Featured Writer

Clara Bade

Clara Bade, 45, lives in Portland. She has three children, Zoe, Landon and Rylee, who are very supportive of her writing. Clara is a survivor of domestic violence. She served in the Navy Reserves as a Corpsman from 1985 - 1991 and also worked as a drug and alcohol counselor.

Clara first learned about our workshops from an ad in Street Roots. She participated in our workshop this summer for adults living on a low income or with a disability. Her poem, The Last Day, was published in our anthology, A Handful of Bright/Un puñado de brillo. A video featuring Clara and that poem follow:

The Last Day

by Clara Bade

The rim of night smelled like a sage goodbye

Everyone that lived and died inside the day

That rotated around us & fell away from time

With all the love and hate we committed between its edges

Like a drying riverbed, we erased from God’s landscape

There will be no rainforest eulogy to help us mend,

when the end is near

When did we begin to scavenge for scenery and solitude?

Pre-washed oxygen and resident gods?

Do we really look so pretty & smart in the end?

from our anthology, A Handful of Bright/Un puñado de brillo