PORTENT

From a distance fading in
shadows of blue spruce
drape hair and shoulders ---
as I face the wind.

Moonlight flickers
behind the steel glimmer
of vines galvanized by ice.

Its lucid strokes of fire
brush fear against
the filigreed work
of bark tracing
moments countless as I pray.

Slowly, my head slips forward
loosening from the Capuchin hood
of balsam,
descending softly from the folds
of the homestead’s fabric.

I close my eyes
intensely deft with silence.

A ragged hemline of lashes
submit to the singe of light
and the burnt-off reluctance
to love again
smudges the horizon’s forehead.

A sign
that I have been redeemed
from months of wearing
“sackcloth and ashes”.

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©Wendy Howe

Presently, I work as a part-time high school English teacher in upper state New York and also manage a small, home-based computer/consulting service. I have always felt that writing poetry is as much a part of my soul as breathing in air. Inspiration comes from everyday experience and imagination refines that experience with truth and insight.

PREVIOUS PUBLICATIONS
Poetic Voices of America (Spring 1997)
Published by Sparrow Grass Poetry Forum

The Consuming Flame (Winter 2000)
Anthology of Poetry
Published by The International Library of Poetry
Ownings Mills, MD

Poetry Magazine E-Zine
October/November issue 1999

Southern Ocean Review E-Zine
January 1, 2000 Issue

Waxing Poetic E-Zine
Yule & Ombolc Editions 1999/2000


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