Still

Be still for a long while
to catch what heron sees

in water’s flux and ruffle:
the tiny fish below.

To see the tiny fish below
that heron catches

in water’s flux and ruffle,
for a long while, be still.

*

Explanation

You wouldn’t have become a poet,
if you’d had a happy childhood
the mother said
to her grown-up child,

as if conferring a blessing,
offering consolation,
instead of the excuse,
the curse, the life-long sentence,
of becoming a poet.

*

Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Enormous Blue Umbrella, Moon Tide Press, 2025. Work has appeared in journals and broadcasts including Eclectica, Gyroscope, Rattle, Sheila Na Gig, ONE ART, Cholla Needles, TSPoetry, VerseDaily, Vox Populi, The Writer’s Almanac, anthologies including Boomer Girls, The Widows’ Handbook, The Poetry of Presence I & II, The Path to Kindness, The Wonder of Small Things, Love Is For All Of Us, What the House Knows, Poetry Goes The Movies. She writes and leads workshops from her home base in Long Beach, California.