More than one has said it:
that love is of this world only

the world of a willow
reaching for a river

as the river
goes its way

and of a nuthatch
nesting in a beechwood tree

as light devolves
from day into night

The true reckoning
of this world

is the way we come
to know things twice

in the wonder first
and then the remembering

the bitterroot blossom
before it fades

and everything else we lose
but love anyway.

A native of Baton Rouge, La., Michael Blanchard now lives in the Cadron Valley of Ark., where he is an adjunct professor of literature at the University of Central Arkansas. In addition to his teaching duties, he serves as editor of SLANT, the University’s international journal of contemporary poetry, and is an active member of the Poets’ Roundtable of Arkansas.