TIDE POOLS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF ORANGE COUNTY POETRY Featuring Kate Buckley, Marcia Cohee, Elizabeth Fellows, John Gardiner, Daniel McGinn, Beth McIlvaine, Michael Miller, Jaimes Palacio, Mike Sprake, Leigh White, James Ysidro Editors: Lee Mallory, Ricki Mandeville, Michael Miller A tide pool is shiny on the surface and filled with hidden depths -- and that's the case with the 42 pieces in this all-star collection, which features work by 11 of the finest poets in Orange County. From Marcia Cohee's bold ruminations to Jaimes Palacio's acerbic wit to James Ysidro's epic vision, "Tide Pools" captures the local poetry scene at its best: incisive, unpredictable and endlessly readable.

UPON WATCHING HIM WORK
by Elizabeth Fellows

His Abraham Lincoln hands
curl around the keys
and he is in that space
where brilliance learns
to be genius...

a place scant few
will ever know exists
and fewer will visit
themselves.

He hunches over
half leaned
hair still rainywet
the sanest madman looking thing
I have ever seen
navigating thoughts
transcending noun and verb
murdering myth and stereotype
covering each inch
of minutes ago
with fierce intensity
and the calm of knowing
tuesday on sunday.

...five minutes... maybe,

then sitting back

still navigating

he breathes

finally

and his Abraham Lincoln hands
leave stillringing keys
to offer unassuming perfection
curling around my
so too still rainy wet hair...