Gray

It's a gray and cool early Spring day in Washington and I've been in a mood to match. This weather is excellent for poetry, however, so in honor of National Poetry Month, here's an older one of mine from an unpublished manuscript called The Sunflower Notebook. Though the season it depicts is different, the mood and color are the same:

Cold Day in June

Gray thoughts on a gray day.
Gray wind drives gray rain
into gray faces. Tires hiss
on gray pavement. And yet
on a cold day in June
the work of a year
is finished after all,
and reading Rilke,
“feeling yourself among stones
that listen,” you feel something
stir: a gray happiness.

I seem to be busier this year, so my poetry month postings may be fewer than in previous years. Don't let that stop you from going out and trying some new poetry or revisiting old favorites this month!