Channeling Emily

by Jean Varda

Emily heard new oak leaves
unfurl barely making a sound
she heard the faint noise of
eggs hatching
tiny first throated cries

she strode through the fox gloves
her small feet left no print
she listened to the creek
till her ears filled with
tiny bells of her poetry
she looked up through the
heavy branches of a maple
at the wood thrush

Emily opened her small hands
over the meadow grass
and spoke softly of bees
she lay in her virgin bed
smelling of clean linen
and dreamt of warblers
indigo buntings and larks

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Jean Varda’s poetry has appeared in The Berkeley Poetry Review, Poetry Motel, Manzanita Poetry & Prose of the Mother Lode & Sierra, Avocet A Journal of Nature Poems, California Quarterly and The Red River Review. Her poem “Naming Her”, published in River Poets Journal 2012 was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She has taught poetry writing workshops,hosted a poetry radio show and sponsored poetry events at cafes. She presently lives in Grass Valley CA. Where she works as a nurse and is writing her memoirs.