Contemplation
Mountain meadows are theological.
Each colored flower some conjecture
about the nature of creation.
There’s a marmot!– proving
that God has a sense of humor.
There’s a red-tailed hawk!– proving
the divine blade of creation has an edge.
All of this is below thought–
indeed, words, any words, despoil it.
Solnit says that walking is at the pace
of human thought– and she cites
the great philosophical ambulators–
Thoreau, Lao-Tzu, Darwin, Basho, Muir…
Some of the flowers are red, some
magenta, some yellow, some blue,
some are white like the shifting clouds above…
I have never known what to do
with this world, or about this world,
but I think I know that walking in the meadow,
in silence (except for the bubbling stream
and the wind on the grass) is…
what is the right word?… hopeful.
Michael J. Galko is a scientist and poet who lives and works in Houston, TX. He has been a Pushcart nominee and was a finalist in the 2020 Naugatuck River Review and the 2022 Bellevue Literary Review poetry contests. Recent poems have appeared or will appear in New Plains Review, Spillway Magazine, Rockvale Review, Atlanta Review, and Cider Press Review, among other journals.
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Stone Poetry Quarterly 