Later this month, Bushwhack Books will release “Time Under The Overlook,” a new poetry collection by Guy Reed inspired by the mountain that anchors so many lives in our region. In honor of National Poetry Month—launched by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 to celebrate the central role of poetry in our culture—we’re sharing “Presence,” a selection from the book.
PRESENCE
For hundreds of years
we’ve taken from the mountain,
cleared its trees twice, rubble
quarries at the end of trails.
We scrape its sides
pull, cut and flatten,
to build altars of stone and wood.
The mountain remains.
We drink its rills,
fish its streams,
hunt its shelters
pick its berries
collect its mushrooms.
Water still pools among old trees.
I take my poems from the mountain’s shadow,
I leave my flesh in return.