When we first arrived in the Pacific Northwest and awoke to an amazing view of the Olympic Mountains from the AirBnB, I thought I would write poetry every day on our trip. That didn’t happen as we got busier with the family, day hikes, town shopping, river rock throwing (children love a good game of throwing rocks). However on that early June morning, I opened Audrey Gidman’s prompts and wrote a poem using a flower as the title, inspired by James Wright’s Milkweed. For the most part, I wanted to capture the essence of place in the amazing peaceful scene of the Olympic Mountains.
Lupine
While I looked beyond the window
lost in blue-green of Crescent Lake,
I sat in longing.
Tall Douglas fir scented the air
of Christmases long ago.
I look up now.
The view is changed.
What was color
is a wild warmth
seeking my sincerity—
a vision of bright red strawberries
sweeter than the sun.
Margaret Simon, draft
Reflections on the Teche 