Daughter of two visual artists, Lisa Allen Ortiz was born in Westport, California and raised in Northern California in the 1970’s. She managed to survive all that, and she is now raising two daughters in Central California where she likes growing vegetables and running in the woods. She recently received her MFA from Pacific University. She happens to be first-cousin-five-times-removed to Emily Dickinson.
All night I dreamed of coyotes.
The cat went missing before bed
and I slept fretful for her delicate bones
...
What's the difference
between this stuff and sand?
Here, the collector said and handed
...
Because it is Sunday
and because I had to go
when I was a child and because
I sold my soul to God
...