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Ellen White Rook

Ellen White Rook is a poet and teacher of contemplative arts residing in Albany, NY and South Portland, Maine. She offers writing workshops and leads Sit, Walk, Write retreats that merge meditation, movement, and writing. She also teaches ikebana, Japanese flower arranging. Ellen is a graduate of the Master of Fine Arts program at Lindenwood University. Her work has been published in New Verse News, Red Rock Review, Black Fork Review, New Note Poetry, Trolley Literary Journal, and more. In 2021, two of her poems were nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Read more of her work at ellenwhiterook.com.

Suspended

this is the time of yearwhen I’m a root-wrapped stone dull under weeks-old snowas more falls in slanted lines that layer softorderly ashespalea poor exchange for light
(the empty sun forgot to rise and the morning cardinal at the feeder was black as a crow)
red a memory of blood
greenrequires transpiration thaw
approaching death or just the endall shapesstill wanting to be born again into this life
(animal vegetable mineral)
sky frozenunder footstone wishing for sap sap wishing for heartwood

On waking

the oracle leavesfootprints in water that turn to icea winter palacethat sieves the sun
inside I dream of swimming in a summer pond
words spoken hangin mythsknife-silver light sits on murky waternot a reflection but the place between object and impressionat the edge
in reeds the heron stands rises out of itself all stillness ready to strike
there is evidence I am here awakethat I have been movingspeakingsometimes listeninga lined facebones that have lost their bonenessdust whispered into clouds
the water I slip into is neither hot nor cold alive with frogs and weeds and slim gray fish I am noiseless as a faraway stone
truth echoes the heron’s cryone slender leg bentabout to breathediveabout to killthe seam betweenwaking and dreamingunspeakable the pond perfumes my hair

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