The Last Half of the Year
Fall
The votive candle spins its last
smoke into the soft tides of air.
The moon slips
away from the earth.
Rain loses its grip
on red stained glass.
Winter
My prayers have gone loose
like wind sound that searches in a dense forest,
and the story I thought I was telling
stops short
at the windbreak.
Where do I walk now when the snow
fills the old footpaths to the rangeland,
and I don’t remember the names
of the mountains anymore?
Sherry Weaver Smith writes poems inspired by her Catholic faith and the landscapes of the American West. Poems have received a Pushcart Prize nomination and a semifinalist award in the Narrative Poetry Contest (Naugatuck River Review). She is the author of The Wolf and the Shield: An Adventure with Saint Patrick. Her poems have been published in The Heron’s Nest, The Seventh Quarry, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Haiku Invitational, Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place and Nature; and Amethyst Review.
