~ Delta Poetry Review ~

Trina Gaynon

Adrift

You were the lover lost in the tule fog,

Rising along canals and ditches after rain,

Reaching past cattails and squat oak trees.

Winds calm, the night cool, I fan at the mist,

Attempting to part it. It resides in aging eyes.

Yet you rise, a blue heron bored with fishing.

The Sacramento Valley gave us wildflowers

And deserted tractors to play among, in fields

Waiting to be plowed, their fertile soil resting.

You were the lover lost in ocean fogs so heavy

That fog horns sounded in the distance.

Lamps of lighthouses swept the tides for you.

We swept along coastal roads, among redwoods.

Tides brought clouds down to touch them gently,

Marine fog playing with coastal rocks and slopes.

We recognize the difficulty of forecasting when

A cloak of mist will settle between us. We wait

For forceful winds to open memory to clear skies.

Trina Gaynon's poems appear in The Poetry Calendar of Oregon, Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California, other anthologies, numerous journals, and a chapbook An Alphabet of Romance from Finishing Line Press. Her book Quince, Rose, Grace of God is forthcoming from Fernwood Press. She currently leads a group of poetry readers at the Senior Studies Institute in Portland and participates in the Ars Poetica community.