Climb to the furtive Swainson’s Warbler lair
on clear mountain streams big laurel desires.
The cool of the stream brings tired feet there.
 
Blue-headed vireos sing, “Have a care,”
to searchers whose high climb steep slopes defy.
The cool of the stream greets tired feet there.
 
Christmas fern and mountain maple share
the warbler’s den where salamanders lie.
The cool of the stream heals tired feet there.
 
A tanager chip-burrs above somewhere
in cathedral-green dusk without fireflies.
The cool of the stream encourages prayer.
The cool of the stream brings tired feet there.

First Place Winner of the March/April 2009 Gulf Coast Poets “Rivers and/or Streams” contest, sponsored by Mary Ann Goodwin.

I am long
and languid,
liquid serpent
stretched across
states and landscapes,
body swelling
and shrinking,
speeding and slowing
with the contours
I create.
I am ever-changing
and constant,
fingers reaching
far beyond my bed
and sometimes,
sometimes I am wild,
a flood surging free
of the confinement of banks,
taking the land
by force.

Second Place Winner of the March/April 2009 Gulf Coast Poets “Rivers and/or Streams” contest, sponsored by Mary Ann Goodwin.

Third Place Winner of the March/April 2009 Gulf Coast Poets “Rivers and/or Streams” contest, sponsored by Mary Ann Goodwin.

Here I sit staring at my canvas
thinking about water.
Rain falls on my head,
plasters my hair to my neck and face,
soaks my clothes
to a perfect fit.
Shoes weigh down
with each step.
Streets become rivers,
canoes and people float by
cats and dogs climb up to the roofs of cars.