Shift
Move one stone
in the waterfall
and hear the changes—
every spike of chert,
fox tooth, leaf-tine
and poison ivy vine
plays with rain-sound,
turning the channel,
pointing the fall
over new beauty,
through snail shells
and chiming caves
to join the river,
each drop finding
its own path
for the first time.
Stray
Wind along the bluff chimes high in the sycamores,
wheezes through the slots of caves and the throats
of chickadees, stirs the dead asters.Something comes
bounding, with golden seedsand thorns woven through its fur,
to rub a cold bluemuzzle against my hand,follow me home.
To the Waterfall in Winter
If there is no path, create one— on deer-hoof feet
crush leaves, pausewhile your ears twitchand you scan
the limestone ridgeyou’re following—the black caves listen.
Then slide three timeson leaf-hidden stonesand so blunder at last
to the waterfall—sit on a rock so slantthat you’re leaning over
a ledge-trickle, a poolof wet chert gravelwith oak-leaf drain.
The water slips, drips,chains, snapsover rock and moss
that’s the palest of greens,a bobcat’s eyespeering through twigs.
You may never knowwhat inside you needs healing,
but when the sedge wrenlights on the vineat the base of your rock
and you feel every speckleof her feathers,her pine needle feet,
her vivid eyes trusting you,you’ll trust yourself
to climb, if you likeas high as the caveup there, by the sky
where the waterfall starts—a cave too smallfor your shoulders—
but through limestonepierced by rainfor how many years
hear how the waterfall begins—one drop.
Free Audio
Pull up a chair and take a listen!
"Undertow" from James Fowler's short story collection Field Trip: Stories
as read by voice artist Claudia Rivera-Tinsley
Three poems from Amy Wright Vollmar's poetry collection Follow
as read by voice artist Claudia Rivera-Tinsley