the path of the moon across water
to remind us that there are trails we cannot walk
Let us praise gravity
because it can create something greater than its parts
moss,
because it glows beacon green in a still bare spring
the cardinal flower
because, if this is earth’s idea of red, we need not seek perfection
Let us praise the minds of poets,
because words need mathematicians
Let us praise stones
because we are inside their long stories
Let us praise water,
because it can become a mirror and hide its thoughts
melodies,
because they cannot keep secrets
photons,
because, at the speed of light, they may ignore time
an apricot New Mexico sunset
because it remembers when lands were sacred
snow, a new child
because let us praise anything that offers a beginning
let us praise the song of the Winter Wren
because it sparkles in trees, because there is such a thing as joy
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 25, Issue 6.
Sally Zaino’s poetry has appeared previously in Cider Press Review, Avocet, Flycatcher, Snowy Egret, Watershed, and others. Her chapbook, Hard Frost, was the winner of the Finishing Line Press New Women’s Voices competition in 2013. She co-edits the online and print poetry journal Earthshine. She has focused many years on land protection, land use, and natural history, and is now directing that energy towards poetry and writing.
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