Poem "Illustrious for Brief Moments"

“Winter Garden”
Original Photo © Renee Podunovich, 2023

Today is another chance
to be fully alive,
present in the What Is —
the light and dark embodied,
the movement from dreaming 
to waking dreams — all of it
the same mysterious fabric. 

Sunrise —
Juncos feast at the feeder
cheerful in the chill white, 
light lands on feathers and drifts,
on me at my writing desk,
on you, somewhere — Webs of distance

I won’t write about longing ever again.
I have already wandered that endless path,
followed it to the distant most planets.                            
I am here, not there, not anywhere else.
I exist inside the silk lining
of pockets of snow, softly
elevating me and the winter birds
far far from our summer selves,
stillness, seeds and scattered 
words become dream food.

We are held aloft
—illustrious —
for brief moments
before our feet sink through
to the solid, frozen earth,
dark matter, the underworld
that will once again
birth us at 
sunrise —

Renee Podunovich, from the chapbook “Illustrious for Brief Moments” (Finishing Line Press, 2021)