Friday Nov 22

On Hiatus

Elaine Fletcher Chapman - Poetry

Elaine Fletcher Chapman (formerly Elaine Walters McFerron) lives on The Eastern Shore of Virginia. She holds an MFA from The Bennington Writing Seminars where she works as Alumni Liaison. She also founded The Writer’s Studio where she teaches writing and presents poetry readings in the Historic Cokesbury Church in Onancock, Virginia. Her poems have been published in The Sun, Calyx, Poet Lore, 5AM, Salamander, and others. Green River Press published her letterpress chapbook, Double Solitude. She is also the author of a nonfiction book, The Therapist’s Diary; a volume of verse, Hunger for Salt; and Three Ridges, Three Seasons: Haibun and Photography, a contemplative collaboration with the photographer, Robert M. Chapman.
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Sabbath #7
 
 
Yesterday Millie dropped off corn and tomatoes from her fields
and those beautiful brown eggs from her chickens.
Last night we cooked five ears and sliced the ripest tomato.
And this morning, scrambled four eggs for breakfast,
adding sharp cheddar when they were almost ready.
We ate mostly in silence, the kind that comforts and nourishes.
I’m practicing receiving, taking in what is offered.
Although, most days, I am like a woman waking from a dream
slightly confused by her surroundings. Nothing familiar
except the creek down the street and the marsh, green, just now.
 
 
 
The Birth of a Wing
 
 
Still winter and cold, the off-shore wind
creating havoc with the tips of the waves
scattering spray like steam from a kettle.
 
The ordinary walk down the beach anything
but ordinary. The gull’s wing, whole and intact,
detached from its body. No blood, a clean break.
 
Feathers, still, white and stunning, undamaged.
My life changed yet unchanged and partially unrecognizable.
Wind blown, not broken. The inexplicable carnage.