Sometimes You Wait In Vain

Enfolded within hills

Trees skeletons stripped bare,

The river runs on

Ghost music in flow,

Always onward, always onward.

Immersed in water soaked air

Yet proud in immobility

Sentinels march in silent step

Hailing the gathering inward

Deep to earth-breath stilled.

Firewood gathered in

Stacked under cover –

Deep night & lost for sleep

Listening to the rodent’s rasp

Of the shelter that holds me here.

The turn of the wheel

One click at a time

Between, an infinity of air –

Motion within such stillness.

This morning the pheasant

Came to visit.

The cats spent the afternoon

Stretched out by the fire.

By nightfall rivulets of rain

Had gathered into river threads.

As I waited in vain

For a poem to arrive.