A Moment in the Life

by Scott Owens

Lying beside the stream, bare feet barely touching
the water, touching everywhere the water has been.
Hands turn clover to left and right in streams of grass,
bright stars of dandelions. I think of the past,
of things that lie buried in the earth in the green birth
of spring. There are mostly people here.
If I’d started with people, their faces would have turned
to flowers, and flowers to earth and water and sky.
I think of the future I am drawn into. There are mostly
people here, their faces blooming with wonder.
Lying beside the stream, bare feet barely touching
the water, touching everywhere the water has yet to go.

Author of 6 collections of poetry and over 600 poems published in journals and anthologies, Scott Owens is editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review, Vice President of the Poetry Council of North Carolina, and recipient of awards from the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the Academy of American Poets, the NC Writers’ Network, the NC Poetry Society, and the Poetry Society of SC. He holds an MFA from UNC Greensboro and currently teaches at Catawba Valley Community College.
Back to Issue Seven: Spring 2010