New Poetry From Deborah Banks

While Crossing the Field

Today in November's fading garden
a female cardinal surprises us,
that bright beak amongst the bossy jays:
a coral and flax stab of restrained light
in the midst of rowdy blue baubles.

Then the walk through the gold saturated field
where the wind has teased the drowsy grasses
into sloppy tufts, so many yellow dunes
ignited against a sharp sky,
beside me, your companionable presence
its own billowing season in my heart.
On our path: the remainder feathers
of the dead pheasant bookmark the trail,
reminder of gloss and its sidekick, fugitive time.

Deborah Banks grew up in the Eastern Townships of Quebec where her love of the natural world was ignited by her surroundings. She taught English for thirty-four years and now lives in rural Nova Scotia.  While Crossing the Field is her debut book of poetry, published by Pottersfield Press.