(a project of NatureCulture)
Dahl Wildlife Sanctuary 3.jpg

Dahl Wildlife Sanctuary / Cheryl Savageau

Dahl Wildlife Sanctuary

 

“Thirteen Moons on the Saco” for Dahl Wildlife Sanctuary and New Hampshire Audubon
by Cheryl Savageau

Jun, 2021

 

Thirteen Moons on the Saco

i

it's snowing big flakes
birds fly over the flood plain
summer on their wings

 

ii

three pairs of mallards
the green and blue of the males
iridescent

 

iii

brown spots on white breast
sandpiper walks the wet beach
among red maple seedlings

 

iv

five soft thin needles
green on the branches
copper on the floor

 

v

in the cobble barren
green lobes of lichens on rocks
furry beach heather flowers yellow

 

vi

kayaks on river
teenagers swimming off rocks
green dragonfly

 

vii

loons float down the slow river
in the banks, swallows nesting

 

viii

in the tall grass
butterflies hover over milkweed
bear cub tumbles into blueberries

 

ix

eagle black against the sky
the calls of bluejays and crows
white birch yellow leaves

 

x

dusk
red leaves falling
moose wades in

 

xi

geese calling
from their arrow in the sky
chill wind

 

xii

in a forest of grey branches
the only color
is the red of the cardinal

 

xiii

morning, open ice
opal-faced otter
gobbles fish
then dives

 

 

   

Cheryl Savageau is the author of the poetry collections, Dirt Road Home, which was a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and Mother/Land, which has been described as “one of the best literary depictions of New England to date” (Craig Womack, author of Red on Red). Her children’s book, Muskrat Will Be Swimming was a Smithsonian Notable Book and won the Skipping Stones Book Award for Exceptional Multicultural and Ecology and Nature Books. Savageau has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Arts Foundation. She has been a mentor to Native American writers through the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers, and received their Mentor of the Year award in 1999. Savageau teaches at the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. Visit Cheryl at cherylsavageaublog.wordpress.com

The mission at NH Audubon (nhaudubon.org) is to protect New Hampshire’s natural environment for wildlife and for people. Founded in 1914 with an original focus on protecting and restoring migratory bird populations decimated by hunting and collection in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, today’s NH Audubon provides: environmental education programs throughout the state, statewide conservation research and wildlife monitoring, protection of nearly 10,000 acres of wildlife habitat in 39 sanctuaries, and environmental public policy and science-based advocacy.