Waxy yellow cinquefoil, stretched out on stems,
waves along with purple vetch and reddish clover,
in the evening hayfield. Wild iris in the wet land
tucks its purple flags. The sea is lying flat.

What is it I am meant to see, walking here tonight?
At Cemetery Point where Native People
buried their dead,
great sea-scoured stones –
monuments to the grandmothers, grandfathers –
cluster at the edge of the waves
as if they were there looking at the evening sea.

There is no crisis on this shore,
no visible lack in earth’s own ways.
Aware of snails on rocks,
seaweed brushing in, gulls roosting,
I am the eye of the mother,
checking things on late rounds.

–Nana Lampton,
Bloom on a Split Board (2011)
Accents Publishing

More from Nana Lampton:

• “Borderless”
• “Losses”
• “Dark Energy”
• Bloom on a Split Board at the Accents Store
• Nana Lampton’s author page

Nana Lampton earned a BA in English literature at Wellesley, and an MA at the University of Virginia, and she attended programs at the Harvard Business School. In 2004, she received an MFA in Writing from Spalding University. Nana has also studied drawing and painting at the Corcoran School of Art and the Louisville Visual Art Association. Nana’s other publications include the books Snowy Owl Gathers in Her Trove, and Moon with the Sun in Her Eye. Her art and poetry have been exhibited at the Chapman Friedman Gallery in Louisville, Kentucky, and the Northwoods Gallery in Land O’ Lakes, Wisconsin, among others.