It rushes, it trickles, it batters, it flows. For over
nine months I floated in two pounds
of water. And when my mother’s broke, I made
a promise to understand the water’s ways.
Ways of water, this diaphanous fluid
mercurial substance, this giver of life.
I have lived through the seasons of water. Learning
the lessons of snow, sleet, frost and hail,
the secrets of fog and mist. The mysteries
of oceans, rivers and lakes. Kicking
in the Long Island Sound at seven months,
jumping off diving boards at four, competitive racing
at eight. Swimming, swimming swimming searching
for the sacred always. Until it brought me here
to the midnight silence of the sea. This place
we call home that rests against time tattered cliffs.
On this night a crescent diamond rising
from the ocean’s palm. My promise held in the light.
– windflower
windflower lives with her wife and two dogs in the verdant meadows of Western MA on unceded homelands of the Pocumtuc, Nipmuc, and Nonotuck people. She co-founded the Feminist Arts Program at the University of Massachusetts Women’s Center where she published and edited, Chomo Uri, a women’s multi-arts magazine and produced the first National Women’s Poetry Festival in 1976. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals and anthologies, including international publications. Her chapbook “Age Brings Them Home to Me” was published in March 2024 by Finishing Line Press.
windflower is also a photographer celebrating the poetry in nature.