Marybeth Hollemann
Giardino di Ninfa
long
like rapunzel’s
cascades of blossom
(oh you’re just a legume!)
winding twining tightrope
walking (jesus)
across placid-eyed stream you
speak in flow
current
long
the spaces between
each word
as if to taste
fully
its sweet nectar
before another word
slips
through.
(the how, now the what)
no trivialities. there are
no trivialities.
everything matters.
what i do, i do with my heart.
all of it.
there is nothing that does not matter.
each note
each bird.
that frog’s three croaks.
the trout just now touching
the surface:
see how the water dimples,
ripples, changes course?
petals falling from the tree,
crumbling Appian bridge,
and clematis, white,
billowing against the
ancient
travertine
wall.
time, says wisteria,
does not exist.
Marybeth Holleman is author of The Heart of the Sound and Among Wolves, among others. Pushcart-prize nominee, she’s published in venues including Orion, Sierra, North American Review, ISLE/OUP, The Future of Nature, and on NPR. Raised in North Carolina’s Smokies, she transplanted to Alaska’s Chugach mountains.