An exercise from a poetry class at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY

Wild Summer

I swivel into wildness,
Have no quarrel with the speckled fawn.
The shaft of sunlight through the trees
Chases away my funk. I gather in a group
hug with poets, then we smudge our fingers
with s’mores and peanut butter and jelly,
gaze at the cerulean sea.
Sunlight splatters through the window
Of the cabin, the sultry air of July catapults
Me into summer’s past. The branches reach
Up to touch the sky, and a lowly bumblebee buzzes
Below. I walk with Emily Dickinson
through the woods, hear the choir of birds
And rustle of leaves this Sunday. I remember when
My heart was open, before the story
of my life unfolded.