September 2018
Michael L. Newell
astrangertotheland@yahoo.com
Note: I am a retired English/Theatre teacher who lives on the south-central Oregon coast.  My two poems this month are from my upcoming book of poems from Bellowing Ark Press in Seattle which is titled Meditation of an Old Man Standing on a Bridge.  The first poem was written while I was living in La Paz, Bolivia.  The second poem was written while living in Kigali, Rwanda.
 
A SOMBER BEAUTY


Rain softly falls through bare branches;
wind whispers an accompaniment; thunder
unleashes distant rolls of tympani;
 
the evening sun's molten
oars of light
ignite your hair and set cheeks aflame
 
while falling water streams down your face
and your hair wild, dangerous, and replete
with promise flows toward deepest night.
 
I barely breathe...
 
 

 
 
A MOMENT OF GRACE
 

Billions of people fill the earth,
each struggling for attention;
 
but I have interest only
in the butterfly perched
 
on a young girl's thumb,
and the evening sun
 
as its light splashes
across her rapt face.
© 2018 Michael L. Newell
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