Against the Sun (Jakobsons)

I’ll just fly to the Atlantic & check osprey
nests along The Shining Sea on the Cape.
Join me, let’s hold hands & fly,
balance on a stone as two robins flutter.

Stand, listen, inhale, release your shoulders.
Spring is here as summer waits impatient,
but the cirrus sky, the honeymoon,
and Venus wait for our gaze. Inhale

the lilacs, lilies, lavender, & mint.
Come to my porch in peace & love.
Remember the best times—the hug, the kiss
on a parkside bench, the owl that beckons.

Forget what ails—those shrinking bones.
Inhale the pasture, the silent world chimes
to the river’s rush. Ring that bell sleeping
in your body. Gather broken twigs,

welcome the red fox, cardinals,
sparrows, the great blue heron.
A nighthawk dreams in my emerald
garden while the osprey returns.

Clarissa Jakobsons instructs at Cuyahoga Community College. She often weaves one-of-a-kind artist books, exhibited internationally. Sometimes she combines artist books with her poems and paintings. She writes, “Don’t be surprised to see my inner artist kicking sandcastles, climbing Mount Diablo, painting Provincetown dunes, or writing under an Ohio crescent moon.