Poetry: Selections from Margaret B. Ingraham

At Dusk

The wind
that fans wildfire’s flame
also at dusk
with its cool kiss
brings sweetness
to the peach.



Contentment

I see it
and I seek it
but I don’t know how
to achieve it—
the peace of animals
I mean,
the sweet contentment
that my dog enjoys
each evening
as he sleeps
beside my feet.



Even Then

As a way to quiet us
or to dissuade
even a single word
the woman, with what
I thought anger, said
“Don’t speak unless
you’re spoken to.”
Even then it seemed
to me a strange way
to chastise us
for even then
I loved time most
when I could sit alone
in silence and listen
to the crickets sing.



Just As

Just as we could not keep
the dusk from falling
from stealing all the color
from the sky
neither can I keep my heart
from calling out your name
when the fields grow still
as the twilight wind subsides.





Margaret B. Ingraham is the author of the poetry collection Exploring this Terrain (Paraclete Press, 2020), This Holy Alphabet, lyric poems based on her original translation of Psalm 119 (Paraclete Press, 2009), and a poetry chapbook, Proper Words for Birds (Finishing Line Press), nominated for the 2010 Library of Virginia Award in poetry. Her poetry has also been published or is forthcoming in The Courtship of Winds, DASH Literary Journal, Door is A Jar Magazine, Evening Street Review, The Hollins Critic, MacGuffin, Medicine and Meaning, Mount Hope Magazine, Nonconformist Magazine, Off the Coast, Sage Cigarettes Magazine, and others.
 

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