Five Poems by Linda M. Crate

 

myths of every age

the woods call out to me

in song,

not everyone can hear it;

 

but i am one of the fortunate ones—

 

crow song dances all around

me,

as i dance and frolic

in the creek whose gems glitter so

abundantly in the sun;

 

here there is

magic—

 

not everyone can see it,

but i can

in every slant of sunbeam

and in the moss on fallen logs;

 

in the wild flowers and in the ivy—

 

every tree remembers my name,

and i listen to the wisdom they give

me as the wind dances through my hair;

telling me stories and myths of every age.

love is everlasting

i once fell in love

with a woman every bit

as wild as me if not wilder,

 

but now we walk different woods;

 

her pink sunsets and white roses

call to me in her name—

 

i wonder if she remembers me

or that purple butterfly

we found once?

 

but that was ages ago,

now we bathe under different moons;

 

i dance in creeks that know not

her name,

and speak to flowers who know not

her touch;

 

and yet she is here in everything—

 

love is everlasting even

when the friendship fizzles into

ether.

 

we all need another

should i walk

in this wood,

memories

are numerous as the

leaves littering

the ground;

 

so many stories i could

tell you of love and friendship—

 

many have walked these

trees,

with stories of their own;

 

each of us is more connected

than we know—

 

when you look at the spine

of leaves they match the lines on

our hands;

 

we are nature and she is us,

and we all need one another.

 

the soul knows

a little red fox and i

made eye contact,

as they stood in the field

looking at me i could not help

but look at them;

 

and yet they looked back

just as curious—

 

it was a magical moment,

felt they were speaking to

me without words;

 

sometimes there are things

you need to hear with your heart

and soul

rather than your ears—

 

some things the soul knows

that it must tell the mind.

 

transformed anew

a majestic crow

welcomed me into the wood,

and i knew that this

forest was full of magic;

 

as i walked into the

creek and spoke

to the trees i saw slants of

sunlight glowing with

magic fall upon everything and

shining through my hair touching me

with all of its prayers—

 

all i can think of is when it is

warm enough i shall go back,

speaking to the trees;

 

listening to crow song as it emerges—

 

i'll let the magic in the wood

touch me,

and let my magic touch it and together

we'll be transformed anew.

Linda M. Crate (she/her) is a Pennsylvanian writer whose poetry, short stories, articles, and reviews have been published in a myriad of magazines both online and in print. She has twelve published chapbooks: A Mermaid Crashing Into Dawn (Fowlpox Press - June 2013), Less Than A Man (The Camel Saloon - January 2014), If Tomorrow Never Comes (Scars Publications, August 2016), My Wings Were Made to Fly (Flutter Press, September 2017), splintered with terror (Scars Publications, January 2018), More Than Bone Music (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, March 2019), the samurai (Yellow Arrowing Publishing, October 2020), Follow the Black Raven (Alien Buddha Publishing, July 2021), Unleashing the Archers (Guerilla Genesis Press, August 2021), Hecate's Child (Alien Buddha Publishing, November 2021) fat & pretty (Dancing Girl Press, June 2022), and Searching Stained Glass Windows For An Answer (Alien Buddha Publishing, December 2022). She is also the author of the novella Mates (Alien Buddha Publishing, March 2022). Her debut book of photography Songs of the Creek (Alien Buddha Publishing, April 2023) was recently published.