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.