Praise for the reservoir that shines in many
moods: deep blue, apple green, dark slate.
Praise for the afternoon’s slanting rays,
October’s bluebird skies
the solitude I find on her shores
the high water that licks the rocky edge
the lapping sound of her wavelets.
Praise for the diversity of stone,
brown, auburn, beige, salmon
shining beneath clear waters,
for the loon that arrives,
with her dark head, white flanks
wings that flap open wide
the strength of her stature
her stout bill that opens
releasing her ethereal song.
Praise for the cluster of four
tiger swallowtails, puddling in shoreline dirt,
licking up minerals, bodies tilting,
delicate wings fluttering
in the breeze.
Praise for the reservoir’s body,
preserved for sustenance and survival
of the living, for the life that can thrive,
remain unperturbed
by human commotion,
the deep ecology
that prevails.
Roxanne E. Bogart
Roxanne E. Bogart is a wildlife biologist, writer, and editor whose nature poems and essays have appeared in Tiny Seed Literary Journal, Poetry Quarterly, WriteAngles Journal, Silkworm, and elsewhere. Her first full-length book of poetry All That Sustains, was published in 2022. She lives in Amherst, MA with her family. Visit roxannebogart.com to learn more.