John Muro: “Beholden”
BEHOLDEN
I’m wondering how best to preserve
this day when I find myself summoned
outside into the warming light, tossing
my net beyond the low islands and
the jagged edge of the Sound,
hoping its threads return in gilded
attire, yielding a tangle of blessings
culled from both sea and hollow
that are a mix of old-growth splendor
and the commonplace, while I fall
back to silence and watch the way
the morning light breaks apart and
scatters across the water, and hear
the soft rustling of the beach grass
and taste the tang of salt-scented air
while white-capped tides are suffused
with the same mussel-blue hue as
the open fist of sky and seeing how
both air and water are stitched together
by these clamorous gulls rising in
rapture then swooning towards shore
and then asking what more can be
done other than to try and somehow
slow earth’s hurry and call summer back.
John Muro has authored two volumes of poems, In the Lilac Hour (2020) and Pastoral Suite (2022). Both books were published by Antrim House. Muro’s work has appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including Acumen, Barnstorm, Delmarva, River Heron, Sky Island, and Valparaiso Poetry Review.