JUDY GAUDET

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Owl Walk at MacPhail Woods

 

silently the stars look down

and the owl looks down

on our whispered visit

to the world of birds and night

 

we look up

an ancient tree connects us

height and depth

night and soul

silence and awe

 

that was the plan

but in fact

no owl came

though we hooted and a hundred

little hoots echoed back

children’s hoots

 

and stomps across the bridge

that crossed the brook

rivaling them with its own rattle

 

not like I’d thought

but was it as good?

 

the kids’ excited play

the meeting of friends

the way the crowd followed

into the dark woods

 

a river of bright jackets

and cheerful expectation

dressed for hope

 

stepping through the spring mud

the branches pushed aside

 

the careful steps

at the edge of the stream

whose temptation none accepted

 

the water’s voice

 

all of our owl cries

 

the dark night

and the moon between the trees

 

two hundred feet

plunder the dusk

but the owl resists us –

our need for conversation –

 

and somewhere over the tall trees

over the high bank

over the darkening sky

missing our event

he finds his own

 

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Judy Gaudet was born and lives on Prince Edward Island, where she works as a teacher. She has written poetry for a number of years and has been published in various journals such as Quarry, blueSHIFT, CV2, Windsor Review, and Gaspereau Review. Poems have been anthologized in The Poets of Prince Edward Island, Henry's Creature, Landmarks: An Anthology of New Canadian Poetry of the Land, and A Bountiful Harvest: 15 Years of the Island Literary Awards. Her chapbook Poems, You Say was published by Saturday Morning Chapbooks in 2004 and her book, Her Teeth Are Stones by Acorn Press in 2006.