Laura Rodley “Madelyn”

Feb
09

Here in Chicago there is no snow on the ground, but some parts of the Northeast are experiencing a Snow Day. So that’s why this poem by Laura Rodley about a runner in the snowy woods seems appropriate.

Thanks to Laura Rodley for letting me share her work here.

Madelyn

She runs without breaking the crust of snow,
snow two feet deep, slick with ice, even glows
in later sun but that’s not when she runs,
her tracks lighter than deer who break through, shuns
the main street, dirt though it may be, her dogs
running beside her- wolves in jest- the slogs
through the deep woods what they all were born for,
the quiet, the pines, granite slick, the firs,
each mile a link towards the future, a fast
of color breaking through, soft mists rising
or snow still falling, a quilt now sizing
the path before her, where coyotes pass.
She runs here daily, holds on, makes it last.

© Laura Rodley, 2017

Laura Rodley’s work has been nominated numerous times for the Pushcart Prize and Best of Net anthologies. In 2013 Laura was awarded the Pushcart Prize for her poem “Resurrection,” which originally appeared in The New Verse News.

She has two chapbooks from Finishing Line Press: Your Left Front Wheel is Coming Loose, which Finishing Line nominated for a PEN L.L.Winship Award, and Rappelling Blue Light, which was a Massachusetts Book Award nominee.

Former co-curator of the Collected Poets Series, Laura teaches As You Write It classes; she has edited and published As You Write It, A Franklin County Anthology volumes I-V, which was nominated for a Massachusetts Book Award. She has also been featured reader at Greenfield Word Festival since its conception.

She is also a free lance writer. You can read her latest stories “Farming is a family affair: 30th Annual NOFA MASS Winter Conference” and “Maple Mama Craft Spritzers” at Country Folks.

Thanks again to Laura Rodley. If you have work to share, send it to weighedwords at gmail.com.