“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.