poetry


Joseph O'Brien
Maritime


Joseph O'Brien
Per Annum


Anders O.F. Hendrickson
Nor Washed Away by the Flood


Michael Lee Johnson
Twist My Words


Roger Mitchell
Holy Matrimony


Roger Mitchell
This Is Only A Test


Leah Acosta
The Same


Eve Tushnet
Story Without a Name


Amanda Glass
Slim


Abigail Swift
Still to See


Mike Schorsch
Well


Br. Ignatius Peacher, O. Cist.
Chipping Sparrow


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Still to See
I didn’t notice
the trees hard-etching the empty November sky
as vividly last year.
My eyes were elsewhere,
and my body a year less tired,
less worn, and yet less stripped
of the weight that gathers 
in those long blind years
when we feel most wise.
Still in today’s lingering glance, I find hope,
a tiny shard of vision— 
when the earth turns around
to this place again,
when the trees release their finery once more to dance,
arms stretched wide to our wild, joyful God— 
then may my sight be sharper still, 
and each year grow clearer
until my eyes cloud
and mind grows clogged,
rough sparks jumping 
their synaptic tracks, and
the swift and silent link between
flesh and soul
is, for a while, a bumbling object in the way.
And still, then
still— 
as flesh withers, and all metaphors melt— 
not still, but then 
may I most truly see.

--Abigail Swift

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Abigail Swift is a graduate of the University of Vermont with a BS in animal science.