Sean Prentiss
Poem Written on Wet Paper While Bow Hunting
Under the duress of a steady
October’s rain, a single golden
birch leaf tumbles
from its branch,
flutters and flutters again
before
my eyes, fading downward,
until it lights upon
the death of brown of
a fallen fir.
This falling, this flight,
is such a simple
moment, one moment
of many moments, occurring
right now, all across
this second-growth forest
that we call
Steam Mill Brook,
but to witness this
trembling, this settling,
teaches me something
about the grace of
letting go, of endings.
Sean Prentiss is the author of Finding Abbey: the Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave, which won the National Outdoor Book Award. He has written two books of poetry: Crosscut: Poems and Majella: Poems from a Mountain Home. He co-wrote two textbooks, Environmental and Nature Writing and Advanced Creative Nonfiction, and he is the co-editor of The Science of Story: The Brain Behind Creative Nonfiction. He is a professor at Norwich University. He and his family live on a small lake in northern Vermont.
Artwork: “Shiver” by Daniel Lurie
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