Elizabeth Spencer Spragins – Five Poems

The Color Wheel

a rainbow arrows
over clouds weighted with gray
mirrored in the loch
a golden eagle spirals
toward promises of sunlight

~Loch Lomond, Scotland

Nectar

a split-rail fence sags
beneath honeysuckle vines
hummingbirds gather
the thick perfume of summer
sweetness lingers on my tongue

~Fredericksburg, Virginia

Shells

tides lift my footprints
from wet sand at the shoreline
while seashells linger
waves rock their seaweed cradles
to the rhythm of my heart

~Beaufort, North Carolina

Tableau on the Shore

two fawns turn and stare
as my kayak skirts the cove
fiddleheads stand poised
in a bank of lady ferns
and nothing breaks their stillness

~Lake Mooney, Fredericksburg, Virginia

Warm Colors

splashes of crimson
spill over lingonberries
when fireweed blazes
and paints an alpine meadow
with warmth of summer sweetness

~Fairbanks, Alaska

Author’s Statement on Beauty

Beauty is the expression of positive elements that coalesce into the very essence of something if one looks deeply with both head and heart. The meticulous exploration of imagery, events, and ideas that might be invisible, overlooked, or forgotten can often lead to the discovery of beauty on an unappreciated level. Spontaneous response to life experiences can be an equally fruitful source of inspirational material. Regardless of the introductory angle, one of my goals as a poet is to sharpen the focus on a particular setting in such a way that its loveliness is more accessible to the reader. Beauty revealed through music, art, or literature can catch our breath in such a way that time stills and we want to linger in that moment. Thus, for the span of a heartbeat, harmony with ourselves, with each other, and with our world prevails. That is the magic, and the power, of artistic expression.

Elizabeth Spencer Spragins is a linguist and editor who taught in North Carolina community colleges for more than a decade. Her Celtic bardic verse has been published by The Lyric, The Quarterday Review, and the Society of Classical Poets Journal. Publication of tanka in The Bamboo Hut, Skylark, and Atlas Poetica is pending. An avid swimmer and an enthusiastic fiber artist, she lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia, with her husband and a rescued cat.