Berry-Picking My mother died he writes in the air she left behind glasses, a lighter, a novel open on the ottoman where her black cat naps in his house now he writes my mother died and again her body falls in her den the cop jimmies the back door sees her dog standing guard feeds her animals before he calls I’m sorry her son pets the black cat in her absence in her notebooks he finds I have pitched my tent in the land of Hope he will scatter her ashes across the Brazos River they waded one summer across shallow waters to pick blackberries she said you have to know where to look Brad Richard

Brad Richard was recognized  as the 2015 Louisiana Culture Award for “Artist of the Year” in 2015. He is founder and Chair of Creative Writing Department at Lusher Charter School in New Orleans and Co-Director of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards/ Southeast Louisiana Writing Region. He has published three collections of poetry and was the winner of the 2010 Washington Prize. His work has been featured in numerous anthologies and journals. Richard has received many grants and awards, including the Century Swept Brutal/ Black Ocean Award in Excellence; a Louisiana Division of the Arts Artist Fellowship in Literature; the Poets & Writers, Inc., Writers Exchange Award in Poetry; and a Surdna Foundation Artist Teacher Fellowship.