J’y Suis, J’y Reste; Hands of a Poet; Old Cowboy; Weeping Mary

POETRY

J’y Suis, J’y Reste

(Here I Am, Here I Remain) Where do I go from here? The winds of change blow north And thus I follow. But where is my heart? If it is split in two, how will I survive? My love will be true to both I fear. And thus my days will be spent In faithfulness to where I am With a longing and heartache To be where I have been. But that is where I am now.

Frost was sorry he could not travel both at once And be one traveler. But I have traveled both and am Back where I began with miles to go. So where do I go from here?

Julie Chitty Hubbard, Canton

Hands of a Poet

Your hands put into words the bruises and bones of twilight when day and its rhythm slip into night’s blueblack soul and everything is possible when a star-freckled sky laughs like a child and winks one bright eye in conspiracy.

Your hands remember reckless, cold, sweet speed and being seventeen with money in your pocket. Keeping time to music heard over your shoulder, so loud you could lean against it.

Your hands remember the first time they held your children and the last time they waved good-bye.

All of you is there. Every glance, every curse, every leaf, sigh, season, scar and whisper is there waiting to be wrung into words that someone might read and know the gift you hold in your hands.

Old Cowboy

He’s just an old cowboy Out of step with the times, Time and change passed him by While he stayed the same Clinging to ways of his past.

He remembers wide open spaces, No fences to get in the way, Dusty trail drives and round-ups Crooning night riders, stampedes And sleeping out under the stars.

Now, in this crumbling old line shack Perched out on the edge of nowhere, He’s just a lonely old cowboy Alone with his songs and memories Of his days in the old wild west.

Dorothy Miller Birdwell, Chandler

Weeping Mary

scarlet-bodied and scarlet-winged,

Mary weeps for her creator for her justice for her own birth

for freedom from notions of wickedness

the evening valleys of her eyes challenge the soul of the morning star

Tom Geddie, Ben Wheeler