Monthly Archives: March 2021

Vesper Bluets at Marsh Creek Lake
 
evening thickens, the dark shore flashes with scores of them;
  lamp-yellow glints rise from green water, broadcast by the descending sun.
 
four wings sculling low with the current;
 no swifter than the water, no slower than the air.
 
landing on lake-drift, they do nothing, let the rippling light reflect upwards;
  in their golden gloss the traveler takes a honeyed pause.
 
some with blue-tip tail curving to nape of yellow head, coupling as they drift; 
 a parenthesis, the audience made complicit in their intimacy.
 
the earth and the sun upon its waters created for them;
 the earth and the sun upon its waters created for us.

 

Susan Charkes, writer and poet, lives in southeastern Pennsylvania. Her poetry chapbook, sp. was published in 2017. She is a member of Montco Wordshop and Tenth Sky Poets. More at susancharkes.com.

Between Realms 
 
In this place of skylarks & kestrels,
            where earth & sea meet the sky
 
Campanula grows in a crag, awaiting
            silver-winged blue butterflies.
 
Wingbeats pause in devotion,
            soft-bowing beacons of the sea-salt air
 
Basalt cliffs become altars, geological psalters
            for every hymn & storm-beaten prayer.
 
Did the ancients know of bellflower blue,
            when they wrote of their sapphire skies?
 
Of silver-winged cerulean, akin to the artist’s hue
            yet more a quality of being (earthly & divine)?
                        
A collective luminosity, where meets both
            mortal & immortal eye—
 
The Heart glow, 
            Earth’s ultramarine mind.
 
 
 
 

Jenevieve Carlyn Hughes teaches humanities for university students. Her poetry has recently appeared in Northern New England Review’s special edition, Front/Lines: Pandemic Perspectives, as well as Braided Way Magazine, Autumn Sky Poetry, and the Connecticut River Review. She enjoys birdwatching, rarely with binoculars. Follow her on Instagram @sea_thistle.