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poetry My California

West Coast poet Beau Beausoleil reflects on the momentary beauties which somehow compensate for our everyday sense of exile and displacement.

fmsbw press

We were empty of distance

and held tight to the sweet

silence between us

This coast is filled with

exiled light

I said

It's what holds beauty

to everything that others

have cast aside

she said

And when we left the car

the light coming off the ocean

seemed to be  everywhere

Beau Beausoleil is a poet and activist based in San Francisco, California. His most recent book of poetry is called War News II (12/9/23 - 6/3/24), which consists of daily poems responding to the genocidal war in Gaza, published in 2025 by fmsbw press in San Francisco. Forthcoming is a poetry chapbook with art by Nanilee Robarge called, Poet as Naturalist, from Raven and Wren Press, in San Francisco. .

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