~ DELTA POETRY REVIEW ~

Awakening

The humid breeze brings a moan, a
low groan from the river’s edge where an
ebony figure leans into song.
His shoulders bow with the weight of
generations of meager means and
barely crawling dreams. A diddly guitar
offers chords skyward, floating on the
heavy breath of evening.

Listen… as the singer’s voice of
woe turns into wonderful.
Ebony ascends into blue within the warmth of
a southern nightfall. On the river’s edge, by the
Father of River’s whisperings, the
heart becomes an alchemist, sending songs to the
heavens, turning years into forever.

Beauty rises here
in a song as old as the soul.
Ancient tunes roll on the riverbed of time,
telling the story of hearts and hands,
of vales and voices,
spinning delta mud into gold.

Linda Watson Owen is the current president of the Mississippi Poetry Society and a former secondary educator. A native Hoosier, she has lived most of her life in the state that has charmed her heart almost as much as did the young pastor she married many years ago. Having lived within the evocative lure of the Delta's music and culture, she finds herself drawn to a charisma especially unique to the Delta itself.