STIRRING
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
CATHY BARBER
It’s foggy and a bit cold—not Florida hot.
We course the boardwalk
through Cypress in a flat basin of nearly clear water.
Kettle bases taper into straight trunks,
branches dripping with pale green Spanish moss.
We’re hoping to spot herons, ibises,
manage a few anhingas perched in the thickets,
wings like caftan sleeves drying.
Silence is punctuated by a certain flutter in the branches
and the surprisingly sweet calls of ospreys
traveling the great expanse above the trees.
Around a corner, a handful of birders with foot-long lenses
have found a pileated and a red bellied
and we get in the mix with our binoculars.
At times, walking, we hold hands, silent and content.
What it used to take to thrill us.
What we now call pleasure.
Cathy Barber’s poetry has been published across four continents, including in Slant, SLAB, Kestrel, The Hopper, and has been anthologized many times. She is a graduate of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program and makes her home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, where she serves on the board of Literary Cleveland. Chapbook: Aardvarks, Bloodhounds, Catfish, Dingoes (Dancing Girl Press, 2018); full length book: Once: A Golden Shovel Collection (Kelsay Books, 2023).
