Within A Poet's Heart (from A Widow's Wreath)

In this quaint mountain village
reds and yellows peek through rows of pines

I watch as autumn creeps slowly, carefully
like a snowshoe rabbit across fields of flowers

the poppies nod their heads in colorful approval
delphiniums answering in shades of softer blue

I add their songs to mine

It would be easy to wrap myself inside the stillness,
hiding elk-deep within corners of these hills

but you are here.

In the swiftly gentle movement of the river
I feel your touch, hear your voice
as a sigh against the silence of the sky

Sunlight flickers across rocks within the river
forming a beacon towards days long left behind

memories of a love that dearly, deeply mattered
fragments of hope once planted
within a poet's heart.