Jane Satterfield

Equinox: A Blessing

As the eagle angles the draft
above the rigging of sweetgum & oak,
I invoke the name of the gods who rule
the one swatch of land left between the campus
byway & bridge to peel back Scotch Broom &
other invasives—
Come forth, cleanse & restore—
In the days of our distress, let heartwood
nourish the living tree, the vesper
sparrow ring out, anthemic. Protect
the small stream where deer come to drink,
racoon to range.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Jane Satterfield has received awards in poetry from the NEA, Bellingham Review, Ledbury Poetry Festival, Mslexia and more. Her books of poetry are Her Familiars, Assignation at Vanishing Point, Shepherdess with an Automatic, and Apocalypse Mix, winner of the 2016 Autumn House Poetry Prize, selected by David St. John. New poems have appeared in Birmingham Poetry Review, Ecotone, Hopkins Review, Interim, Nelle, Orion and elsewhere. She is married to poet Ned Balbo and lives in Baltimore.