Be a person here. Stand by the river, invoke
the owls. Invoke winter, then spring.
Let any season that wants to come here make its own
call. After that sound goes away, wait.
—William Stafford, from “Being a Person”
•••
(for Deborah)
I, who have so many words,
as you do, too, when we arrive
at spots on the still-damp path
where the trees unfold their
arms in a ta-da! reveal,
we go silent, breathing in
the reflection of morning
on water, absorbing the stillness
of refracted light and mirrored
color. And we find ourselves
rooted, too,
awestruck by the tableau
across the river of blue heron
standing tall on a rocky sandbar
with an egret and five mallards
nearby—
until you pop up with a new take
on an old joke:
A heron, an egret and five
ducks walk onto a sandbar….
Then our laughter floats into this
inconstant season, changing by
the minute, as the birds well know,
undisturbed by human visitors
who have stopped, who listen,
all of us, before moving into
what comes next.
Güd wrtr 
I haven’t heard the joke, and still loved the poem! You took me there, by the river….
Love,
Amrita
PS and I love William Stafford. I also had the blessing of a weeklong writing retreat with his son, Kim, who is also an amazing writer and teacher. This was about twenty years ago….
That must have been incredible, Amrita! Both of them are poets I’ve long admired!
Yes. At the time, I was writing prose, but most people–I think there were 9 or so–were poets. I’ll send you the one page prose piece I wrote there. I have to admit, I like it a lot!
“walk onto a sandbar” Ha!
Mom
>
Thanks, Ma, for echoing the bad joke!
thanks for the giggle.
You’re most welcome!