CLEAR VIEW by Renee Podunovich

 

Clear View 

 

Iceblue before sun crests,

just a few flickers of saffron sail

over the horizon line,

possibility—

 

            hush, wait in the quiet

            for that luminosity, that moment

when light finally lands on the winter fields;

grasses bent, the weight of snowflakes,

frost fringes their honeyed stalks, shimmers,

shivers, swims in snow banks, sun-splashed.

 

I place myself in the center of my life once again,

will let this warmth cover me too.

I belong here, in the middle, centripetal

and still I dance

 

            with you, we are bright

            like embers, like night stars

            sparkling the black universe,

            our hearts on fire, ablaze

            with elation, vibrantly          

            unburdened from all

            that was let go.

 

I burned everything

that blocked my clear view.

Now, ash and fallow make space,

an invitation, an opening.

 

Something new will grow here,

and I intend to tend it well.

               *   *   *

(This poem first appeared in the author's third chapbook, “Illustrious for Brief Moments”, published in February of 2021. Click here for your own copy!) 

Renee Podunovich is a poet and freelance writer living in southwest Colorado. She has three chapbooks of poems:“Illustrious for Brief Moments” (Finishing Line Press, 2021), “Let the Scaffolding Collapse” (Finalist of the New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition by Finishing Line Press, 2012) and “If There Is a Center No One Knows Where It Begins” (Art Juice Press, 2008).  She is the 2019 Cantor Award winner for the best poem by a Coloradoan in the Fischer Prize awarded by the Telluride Literary Festival. Her poems were nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2010 and 2011. Renee believes that poetry is a language that encourages us to transcend our constricted sense of self and connect to our essential nature within and the living intelligence of the world around us. Renee facilitates Well Writing: Wordcraft for Discovery, Wholeness & Connection workshops that are designed to use creative writing as a tool for centering, reflecting and for personal growth. Visit Renee's website here, and her blog here. 

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