Monday, July 01, 2019

2019 Editor's Choice Award Winner Ann Glumac


MATINS
by Ann Glumac

I worship in the early dawn,
an ecumenical affair.

The muezzin is a warbler of some kind,
his call a whisper that darts and weaves
through the soft green leaves of June.

The water is temple,
chapel, mosque; a holy,
holy place
where I am supplicant.

I breathe in the Holy Spirit,
incense of lilacs, apple blossoms,
Balm-o-Gileads,
the clean smell of fish.

I give thanks. For the bindi
of the red-winged blackbird.
For the tapers of river grass
lit by the rising sun.
For the pollen dusted like blessing ash
in quiet bays and inlets.

I am infused with grace,
so grateful for this moment
I thank them all:
God, Allah, the Creator, Yahweh.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

One cannot be agnostic in this boat.
-------------------------------
Ann Glumac lives on the banks of the St. Louis River in Duluth, Minnesota, where she is inspired every time she looks out the window. A writer and a poet, a trainer and a consultant, she currently is at work on her second collection. Ann also edits poetry manuscripts and conducts poetry workshops.

She writes to capture moments large and small, to make sense of them and to share them with others—creating, with her readers, a common experience, a place they go together. While composed of words, her poems owe their vitality to this interaction between writer and reader.

Her 2014 debut collection, A Skim of Ice on Still Water, was a finalist for a Northeastern Minnesota Book Award.


No comments: