Two Poems by Steve Deutsch

Accidie

These days
I take to
the river.

Isn’t that
what the wise
would have us do?
.
I bring
a pad and pen
although it’s

been months
since I’ve written
and longer still

since I’ve written
anything anyone
might want to read.

I lie back against
my favourite willow
let memory take me

where it will
as I half-listen
to the river,

the breeze
through the willows,
and the buzzes

and squeals
from tiny things
I can not name.

And the willow
stays a willow,
the river

a river,
and when I rise
at dusk,

I am the same
as I was
at dawn.

Poetry

Listen,
the house
by the lake

still stands.
Is that where
the body is buried?

And the grove
of trees
I planted

a lifetime ago
competes with the clouds
for the thin breeze.

It’s the one real thing
I’ve managed.
Might the trees discuss

their fostering?
In spring
the lake

is blue-green
and unmarred
by even a single ripple.

It tempts us
to walk across.
One end is

shallow
the other
deep,

though people
have drowned
in both.

Won’t you
step in
with me?

I think it’s
a risk
worth taking.

Steve Deutsch lives in State College, PA. Some of his recent publications have or will appear in Santa Clara Review, Sangam, Poetica Review, Lothlorien, Muddy River Poetry Review, Silver Birch, Backchannels, Red Weather, The Drabble, Sheila-na-gig, The Rush, Pirene’s Fountain, Evening Street Review, and Schuylkill Valley Journal. He is poetry editor of Centered Magazine. Steve was nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize. His Chapbook, “Perhaps You Can,” was published in 2019 by Kelsay Press. His full length book, Persistence of Memory was published in 2020 by Kelsay. Steve’s third book of poetry, Going, Going, Gone, was published in 2021.