(along the Appalachian Trail, Hardwick, NJ)
What can be done
with the love that is left
after a loved one dies—
for time is short
and love outlives
the living.
Find a place
in the forest
where the rocks are solid
and strong,
where the trees
endure shadow
year after year. Sit
among the leaves and listen
to the wind. Sift the soil
through your fingers.
Feel
how the earth mulches
and richens itself
through the cycle
of seasons.
So much is transformed,
so much remains—
for time is long
and love outlasts
the living.
Find a place in the forest,
and take it there.
Elaine Koplow, retired English teacher and union organizer, is Director of the Sussex County Writers’ Roundtable and Associate Editor of The Stillwater Review. A three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems appear in the anthology Voices From Here Volumes 1&2, Spillway, Edison Literary Review, Wawayanda Review, Adanna, Exit 13 Magazine, U.S.1 Worksheets, Tiferet, Journal of New Jersey Poets, The Midwest Quarterly, and elsewhere.
Featured image by Derek Wright
