The Summer-Lessened Stream

By Laura Foley

Issue 46 • Fall 2022 • Poetry

2nd Place Poetry

2022 Summer Contest

The music of this poem first caught my ear, and then I couldn’t help but be lulled by the descriptions of this seemingly ordinary action—sitting on a stone by “a summer-lessened stream.” Without distracting too much from the beauty of this instant, and the truth it brings to light, the poem nonetheless manages to encompass climate change, individual mortality, and the healing power of giving our continual attention to the natural world. This poet reveals how, although our planet remains threatened by climate crisis, and we each face our own “eventual burning,” we can still allow ourselves the joy of immersion in nature, receiving it as the spiritual transcendence it always is. This poem encourages us to “step off the path” of our own busy, distracted lives to spend several moments with this speaker beside the stream, finding a deeper sense of “flow” that we often forget is still available to each of us. After absorbing this poem’s careful rhythms and attention to language, I am more able to embody its central message: “to sit and attend the variations” of whatever and whomever I find right in front of me.

– James Crews

I sit on a stone by a summer-lessened stream
of less water and more exposed boulders,
totems of mid-summer stones

gentled by moss and springing ferns,
a shady spot relieving morning heat
as I read the world is burning,

but not here, not yet,
by this stream-pool’s shade-cooled water,
enough for a water strider to cast its shadow

on sparkling, submerged banded schist
skating through the dark space
made by a human form over it,

a forest as open to me
as to this little skimmer,
to whom I whisper

my only wisdom is: to sit and attend
the variations of a stream,
its strings, oboes and a flute,

a thrush’s notes descending
downward to me,
through hemlock’s darkness,

where I forget for these moments
my eventual burning;
in no hurry, my dog and I

have stepped off the path,
to sit beside a stream that knows
sunlight reflected on a mossy stone,

and ferns that sway as if there is a breeze
in some brief unseen spirit’s breath
I don’t feel on the cheek, I turn

to being stream and channel
not staying, or going.
Flowing.

Laura Foley

Laura Foley’s most recent poetry collection is: Everything We Need: Poems from El Camino (2022). Why I Never Finished My Dissertation received a starred Kirkus Review, was among their top poetry books of 2019, and won an Eric Hoffer Award. Her collection It’s This is forthcoming from Fernwood Press. Her poems have won numerous awards, and national recognition—read frequently on The Writers Almanac; appearing in American Life in Poetry. Laura lives with her wife, Clara Gimenez, among the hills and streams of Vermont.

Monika Galland

Monika Galland was born in Switzerland, Basel in 1949. Education by an academic artist 4 years: painting, drawing with several materials. She has participated in exhibitions, and her artwork has been purchashed by government institutions. Long-standing member of an art association. Doing collages is her favourite art. She has done illustration of 3 children books in collage technique. The 3rd one is almost ready for printing.