Song

By Bruce Willard

something cannot happen
without hands
             i want to say
something cannot grow
             without touch
             can you hear me

somewhere is not
without hunger

             in the fields
             in the kitchen
             on a canvas
             on a page
             can you hear it

make a song
             a trench
             in the earth
             sprinkled with
             seeds

or a stave
             like a perch
             for the human voice
             through which
             arpeggios of sunlight
             ascend

Bruce Willard has published two collections of poems, Holding Ground (2013) and Violent Blues (2016), both published by Four Way Books. His third collection, In Light of Stars, is expected in 2021. Also by this poet: "History Lesson" and "Inverted Root"