Eric Forgaard
Eric Forgaard moved to the SF Peninsula in 2002 after growing up in Santa Cruz and then logging decade-long stints in San Diego and Washington, D.C. He worked for 10 years as a systems manager, first for a scientific publishing firm and then for an accounting firm. After moving to the Peninsula, Eric served as administrative director at a job-focused nonprofit for seven years before taking his current position in communications for the County of San Mateo.
Eric earned a BA in Humanities from SF State University. He is the author of the poetry collection, Passages (1993), as well as several books of photography.
Poem on Belonging
CHILDREN OF BELMONT On Belmont’s eastern rim near the sloughs of Redwood Shores a Little Leaguer saunters to the plate hoists the bat to his shoulder and peers out from under a broad-brimmed helmet gone askew Marina Field fans out before him and he waits The pitcher leans in and feels for the proper grip Traces of kicked dirt and mown bent grass spice the late spring breeze Parents shift and murmur on the warm aluminum bleachers Everyone luxuriates in the peculiar suspension of time Elsewhere below the high ridges of the western borderland a meandering girl on Chaparral Trail brushes past a kaleidoscope of butterflies perched on a spray of ferns launching them into scattershot retreat Later in finespun reverie she’ll recall their flit and hover and wobbly glide Their shimmering flashes of color in the slanting light Down the hill curious readers pluck discoveries from library shelves and sink into plush chairs with tales of wiggly bugs and distant lands on their laps Finally tiring of the playground young ones toddle up the footpath at Twin Pines Park on some cheerful quest trailed by a parent roused off a wooden bench Little shoes stamp at cottony clumps of sunlight sprinkled about under the soaring eucalyptus under wise oaks All through the day and into evening the children of Belmont gather memories like dandelions And after the sun slides off the boughs after crickets take the night from their bedsides the stories of kingdoms are whispered
Copyright © 2019 by Eric Forgaard. Used with permission of the author.