Poem: Signs

Brittany Patterns - Juanita Hagberg

Signs

Water finds its own path, snaking through soil and reeds
to pattern land with runnels and shift the shore
with ebb and flow, fresh and salt meeting in marshes,
those intertidal habitats that crucible life.

The world shows water where to flow, gravity, moon,
and centrifugal force its guideposts. Rain falls, a brook
ripples round rocks or tumbles down steep scarps
in a roar. Misty plumes rise like hot-air balloons.

Oceans rise and fall, high tide, low tide, neap tide,
slack water, currents swirling where they will.
Water tunes to the world, follows the path
that serves it best.

I follow arrows on the trail, hiking up the hill as the creek
tumbles down, seeking the crest and the source
of the water. When I reach a fork with no arrow,
I listen to the water and know which to take.


Aline Soules
©2022

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The Benicia First Tuesday Poets’ Group and members of Benicia Literary Arts have written ekphrastic poems about paintings from our show, Watercolor - A Happy Medium.

Ekphrastic poems are vivid verbal descriptions of a work of art. Fifteen different poets each came to the aRt Cottage to pick one pieces from each of the 15 artists in the show. We'll be sharing the poetry here on the blog over the next several days - enjoy!