Ashokan Eaglets & Dusk

  |  February 8, 2017

I’d live among you
in these unsullied hills
wing-swirl thermals with cerulean
lavender & late light coral.

I’d prefer perilous nakedness
a wilderness of chance
give way & all to god-sense
surge, soar, lead.

Better to risk the storm
the fall, a thieving hawk
starve by my own neglect
succumb to the better hunter

than to live without sight from above
heart-space a parched basin below

I’d rather die with hunger, that voracious hunger
instinct in my belly.

This poem was creating during an event hosted by the Poetry Barn called Writing the Res. This event was dedicated to the history of the Ashokan Resevoir, the towns and communities that were uprooted for ‘the greater good’. The Poetry Barn is a collaboration dedicated to poetry appreciation, the nurturing of new and experienced poets and the creation of art in the Hudson Valley. Read another poem written at this event: An Instance of This, by Lissa Kiernan.

About Catherine Arra

Catherine Arra lives in upstate New York. A former English and writing teacher, her recent poetry and prose appear in The Timberline Review, Boston Literary Magazine, The Naugatuck River Review, Gloom Cupboard, Peacock Journal and Flash Frontier. Her chapbooks are: Slamming & Splitting (Red Ochre Press, 2014) and Loving from the Backbone (Flutter Press, 2015). www.catherinearra.com

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