Morning in a Pine Forest, by Thomas Farr

Morning in a Pine Forest, by Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky (Russia) 1889

Morning in a Pine Forest

Fresh off the brush, the pewter-blue
of dawn slips through
a slouch of pine and spruce, reaches out
to touch a broken trunk perused
by a sleuth of bears: a mother
and three cubs. That's the painting. A nature scene
from two of Russia's greatest. Of course,
it's more than that to me. It's a window in which
I lose myself just by looking in . . .
the way the white of mist invests the forest's silhouette,
or how one cub, up on its hindlegs,
seems dumbstruck by the brightening mid-sky,
the thought that day has come again
with nothing to explain it.

Thomas Farr

​Thomas Farr is a poet whose work explores the interstices of nature and spirituality, with a particular interest in haiku sensibilities and wilderness poetry. He appears or is forthcoming in River Heron Review, Aôthen Magazine, Wales Haiku Journal, Kyoto Journal and elsewhere. He tweets [X's] @tfarrpoetry.