Danielle Hanson: California Poets Part 11, Four Poems

Danielle Hanson

October 20th, 2026

California Poets: Part XI

Danielle Hanson

Four Poems

Early Morning Rowing Practice

The stars have yet to surrender

as we gather on the sand to

launch. The bay has receded,

evacuated towns of sand, empty

castles filled with the smell of

wet death. A shorebird picks

through corpses of crabs for loot.

Our oars snap sharply into place and

we wade in then onto water, steer

our way toward island. We whisper

not to wake the sleeping and dead.

The sun is coming for us all.

The ocean waves it in, gathering

it into its many arms.

Wildfire

We see the red glow at the top

of mountain, cocked, a crown,

slipping to the side. Has the mountain

been drinking too much again?

The next morning we wake, dry

mouthed. The sky is hazy. There

is no mountain to be seen. It has

burned itself to ground.

For the Finch Stuck in the Feeder

All hunch and shallow breath, panic held tightly by the throat, brilliance of red feathers at the edge of brown, its head was caught, twisted at an angle, between glass and metal, stretched toward seed and nut. Small feet cold against my hand, I took down the feeder, lowered it to earth, removed lid, removed crossbar one bolt and one nut at a time, noticing a shining drop of red near the toes. The only way forward was turning the metal opening, not knowing if it would loosen or decapitate—which sort of freedom awaited—then a shot of bird somehow propelled backwards and up into heaven, a tree in the distance.  

A Stabbing

Night staggered

drunkenly

down the street to

      the river, who’d

been out with

the day,

came home late.

In his anger he

     grabbed a star

and stabbed.

But what

is a knife to water?

Go to sleep, Night.

Author Bio:

Danielle Hanson is author of The Night Is What It Eats (Elixir Press Prize), Fraying Edge of Sky (Codhill Press Poetry Prize), and Ambushing Water (Finalist, Georgia Author of the Year Award). She serves as the inaugural Poet Laureate for Costa Mesa, California and is an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow for 2026-2027. She edited the poetry anthology Objects in This Mirror with Julia Beach. She is Guest Editor for Codhill Press and Marketing Director for Sundress Publications. Previously, Danielle has been Writer-in-Residence at UC Irvine. She currently teaches as a Professor of the Practice in Creative Writing at UNC-Chapel Hill.