Occasionally and Irrevocably We Blunder Into the Garden, by Penelope Moffet

Occasionally and Irrevocably We Blunder Into the Garden, by Gilah Yelin Hirsch (USA/Canada) 2009. Click on image for artist website.

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Occasionally and Irrevocably We Blunder Into the Garden  
for Roger
 
That year we separated –
I went to oak grove and chaparral,
wind and silence 
to find the poems I needed, 
seeking signals from the owls
who called each other in the dark.
A coyote materialized one sunny morning, 
held my eyes while trotting away, 
telling me to stay a while longer 
there where the days grew long and full of heat, 
where in the quiet I could hear 
the back-and-forth of towhees, quail, jays,
the song running under everything.

Penelope Moffet

Penelope Moffet is the author of two chapbooks, most recently It Isn't That They Mean to Kill You (Arroyo Seco Press, 2018). Her manuscript Balcony was second runner-up for the Louis Award from Concrete Wolf Press in 2019. Her poems have been published in The Rise Up Review, Verse-Virtual, Natural Bridge, The Missouri Review and elsewhere.