A Phoned-In Podcast by Bill Chalmers
This is another poem from a collection I call Alaska and Other Newfound Frontiers. It’s entitled One Season Short.
Winter comes so early here, it robs us of the chance
to revel in fall’s rainbow hues or chase leaves as they dance.
We miss those soft aroma days of summer’s curtain call;
those rustling sighs and moon-high skies of nature’s favorite: fall.
We close to sleep one summer’s night and wake to flurrious snow.
Our autumn passed us as we slept, with none to watch her go.
My dad, Bill Chalmers of Juneau, Alaska, was an English teacher, author, poet, football enthusiast, raconteur... a wonderful, warm, and giving person. Inspired by his locally-legendary answering machine messages, we gave him a phone number he could call to leave a message, a poem, or a story. Each call became an episode of this podcast. He died on September 30th, 2026, and these recordings are just a small refraction of the light that he leaves behind in all of our hearts. –- Devin Chalmers, October 2026