I Will Walk the Trail by Michael Biegner

(After Wallace Stevens’

 “The House Was Quiet and The World Was Calm”)

I will walk the trail

for as long as I can

to search for the things

I need to survive

that will build me up

over time, that will

strengthen me in years.

Up ahead, there  is

a turnoff I am destined

for, not on my own,

mind you, more like

stumbling into grace,

the way morning light

crowbars its way around

bedroom shades, forcing its

way into the room, unable

to resemble anything with a

skeleton, anything solid,

a shimmering Jello, a

glimmer unable to stand for

any length of time without

something else giving it form.

I will walk the trail

for as long as I can

to search for the things

I need to survive

that will build me up over time,

that will make my absence

less obvious, though you may

not describe my life as anything

so close to worthy.

For I am on the trail, now,

finding sticks winter has

left for me, and I clear

them off. That is all you need

to know, that this  is what I

am doing on this trail, as if my

life depended on it.

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Michael Biegner has been published in Blooms, Poetry Storehouse, Silver Birch Press, Silkworm, WordPeace, Pondersavant, Necro Prooductions, and the Poets To Come Anthology, in honor of Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday .  His prose poem (“When Walt Whitman Was A Little Girl”) was made into a video short by North Carolina  filmmaker Jim Haverkamp, where it has competed at various film festivals around the world and is available for viewing on Vimeo. Michael was a finalist in the 2017 Northampton Arts Council Biennial Call To Artists.