Time of the owl sweeping the field,
a quiet reconnaissance
requiring quick vision.

The mouse moves fast.
The scales of survival tip
toward clever eyes. The raccoon peers
around the flowing skirt of the maple tree.
Night heron surveys from the pond.

The last of moonlight disappears;
daylight slowly rises with the mist.

Low dawn did not announce her
full-blown day to me, until I saw
clusters of roses flush in her pastel light
and white catalpa’s upright moon lamps.

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

More from Bloom on a Split Board and Nana Lampton:

• “Late Walk”
• “Borderless”
• “Losses”
• “Dark Energy”
• Bloom on a Split Board at the Accents Store

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.