Vine Growing Out Of Stone Hermitage, Mount Maiella, Italy
by Judith Valente
                         (for Jack Doyle)

It springs from the limestone side
    of an ancient hermitage
        like a mottled face or a green heart
            set against a sea of gray stone

Emerald patch just large enough
    for a partridge to perch on
        it breaks through heart of rock
            finds its living water

Should a mountain goat amble above
    disturbing a tumbling rock
        still it stares ahead
            fixed on the horizon

A single yellow flower
    rises from its chest
        dares to speak its name
            shouts what needs to grow will grow

will not be denied in this mountain vastness
    where wild winds rule
        gray wolf and red deer are companions
            and only beauty can save us



 

Return to: