Think time.
Think slither, squirm, bulge, ooze.
Visualize seed, shadows, holes, curves.
Trust beyond what you can see.
Remember tree roots share secrets,
canopies hold more than sunlight and birds.
Recall dinosaurs in the gingkos
then, cedars, cardinals, jays.
Those old forests and then the saws.
Remember coming over the mountain,
meaning of listen.
Shhhh.
Hear the ants, the ferns unfurling, shunk cabbages
and horsetails with their wet feet.
The owl’s shriek, one soft cry, coyotes howling
for their share.
And there on the cliff
pine trees bent to the sea.
Pray there be forests to get lost in,
trails to be found.
—
Susan Landgraf’s Out of a Land of Alkali and Chromate will be published May 2025. Previous books include Journey of Trees, Crossings, The Inspired Poet, What We Bury Changes the Ground, and Other Voices. An Academy of American Poet Laureates award resulted in A Muckleshoot Poetry Anthology published by WSU Press in 2024. She’s published more than 400 poems in Nimrod, Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore and others. She served as Auburn’s Poet Laureate from 2018-2020.
