If Herons Could Pray

by Cristina M. R. Norcross


I am free.
Every cell speaks of this.  
Even the wind knows how to reach me.
I see branches that sway and kiss the ground
like the blue heron in prayer.

This body—
this body
that houses equal weights
of wonder and fear,
does not yet know how to shed the morning paper,
the mirror's reflection,
the urgent messages left behind in sand.

I heard a wooden flute last night 
after several poets read verse
to celebrate the longest day.
With the flute's long, sustained notes,
the woods came closer to my blanket.
The sun slipped slowly behind marigold-tinted clouds.
The blue heron returned to pray.

He is waiting for me to stop for a longer rest—
for me to notice this freedom.


* * * * *

"If Herons Could Pray" was first published in The Lava Storyteller, Red Mare Press, 2013
 
Cristina M. R. Norcross is editor of Blue Heron Review, author of 9 poetry collections, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and an Eric Hoffer Book Award nominee. Her most recent collection is The Sound of a Collective Pulse (Kelsay Books, 2021). Cristina’s work appears in: Visual Verse, Your Daily Poem, Verse-Virtual, The Ekphrastic Review, Pirene’s Fountain, and others, as well as numerous anthologies. Cristina has helped organize community poetry projects, has hosted many readings and is co-founder of Random Acts of Poetry & Art Day. Cristina lives in Wisconsin with her husband and two sons. www.cristinanorcross.com