navigating its web
fascinating and disconcerting
(more fascinating while on the
other side of the window)
back and forth
suddenly in freefall
yet across the window
not just down
soft landing on air
then deliberately climbing back to the top
the web visible only in
the motions of the artist
tethered yet free
perpetually crafting
yet laying in wait at the same time
in riveting motion then motionless
and again
top left to top right
down at an angle
the long climb back to top right
across to top left
and again
the nest tucked in a hidden corner
woven of the same fabric as the trap
so lovingly laid
for the unsuspecting
and again
drop, climb, cross, recross
the spell broken by the
disappearance of the artist
around the window
the show is over
ah, the second act (or third, or fourth….)
another to
another fro
By Russell Willis
Russell Willis emerged as a poet in 2019, beginning with the publication on January 2 of three poems in The Write Launch. Since that launch, his poetry has been published in Cathexis Northwest, Vermont’s Best Emerging Poets 2019, Meat for Tea, The MOON magazine, Snapdragon: A Journal of Art & Healing, Tiny Seed Literary Journal, The Write Launch (again), The Esthetic Apostle, and two anthologies by A. B. Baird.
Russell’s nature poetry includes experiences of life across six decades in the deserts and scrublands of the Southwest, both the northern and southern Great Plains, the Gulf Coast, and the Green Mountains and rocky North-Atlantic coasts of New England. His poetry also reflects both spiritual and ethical perspectives on nature and the intersection of Nature and humanity.