DEBORAH H. DOOLITTLE

 W.S. Merwin on a Field of Iris in Full Bloom

When Irises fill the field, I wake
early, wait for an egret or great
blue heron to wade into that bright
light and glittering exuberance.

Which is what I would do, extracting
one stilt-like stick of a leg from the silt
all while balancing on the other.
Feeling akimbo and lost in thought
in this undulating limbo makes
me pause.  Meanwhile, the dissolving gauze
of morning slowly draws out that bird,
one meditative step at a time.

Call it inevitable.  The way
sunlight shines a white light on all those
shifting greens and blues as the heron
lifts itself into majestic flight.
That delight which I will share in soon.   

Deborah H. Doolittle, who was born in Hartford, Connecticut, has lived in lots of different places, now calls North Carolina home.  A Pushcart Prize nominee, she is the author of Floribunda (Main Street Rag) and three chapbooks, No Crazy Notions (Birch Brook Press), That Echo (Longleaf Press), and Bogbound (Orchard Street Press).  Some of her poems have recently appeared (or will soon appear) in Cloudbank, Comstock Review, Kakalak, Iconoclast, Ravensperch, Slant, The Stand, and in audio format on The Writer’s Almanac.  She shares a home with her husband, four housecats, and a backyard full of birds.