Poems by Colette McHale Wisnewski
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Lamentation
by Colette McHale Wisnewski
From Canary Fall 2023
Colette lives in the Deer Creek Watershed in rural Will County south of Chicago. Her daily walks loop through grasses, prairie plots, wetlands and wooded sanctuaries offering intermittent moments of reflection, a respite from the noise and busyness of the world.
In brittle browning forests
in rural woodlots and city parks
ashes fall
marking our mourning time
windbreak litters the path
of our walking lamentation
under the harsh glare of unfiltered sun
through the gaping canopy
a tinder of lost nesting
smoldering in our hearts
a knell of hungry woodpeckers
hammers the dying bore-riddled trees.
© Colette McHale Wisnewski
Vernacular
by Colette McHale Wisnewski
Place forms the vernacular of being,
the soft swish of grass speaking in short haiku
patterning our speech.
Even as the bones of trees speak,
moving limbs as slant marks
breaking moonlight
into shadowed syllables, we understand
other beings punctuate our lives—
the accent of a hawk wing
tipping into the hunt,
an exclamation point of white-tail deer
disappearing into the forest edge.
The emerging animal within insists
we find our voice in the flesh of this place,
keeping the story alive,
speaking its truth
here, now,
in this particular language.
a version of this poem appeared in Fall/Winter 2022 Humana Obscura
© Colette McHale Wisnewski