Poetry: Selections from Margaret B. Ingraham

At Dusk

The wind

that fans wildfire’s flame

also at dusk

with its cool kiss

brings sweetness

to the peach.

Contentment

I see it

and I seek it

but I don’t know how

to achieve it—

the peace of animals

I mean,

the sweet contentment

that my dog enjoys

each evening

as he sleeps

beside my feet.

Even Then

As a way to quiet us

or to dissuade

even a single word

the woman, with what

I thought anger, said

“Don’t speak unless

you’re spoken to.”

Even then it seemed

to me a strange way

to chastise us

for even then

I loved time most

when I could sit alone

in silence and listen

to the crickets sing.

Just As

Just as we could not keep

the dusk from falling

from stealing all the color

from the sky

neither can I keep my heart

from calling out your name

when the fields grow still

as the twilight wind subsides.

Margaret B. Ingraham is the author of the poetry collection Exploring this Terrain (Paraclete Press, 2020), This Holy Alphabet, lyric poems based on her original translation of Psalm 119 (Paraclete Press, 2009), and a poetry chapbook, Proper Words for Birds (Finishing Line Press), nominated for the 2010 Library of Virginia Award in poetry. Her poetry has also been published or is forthcoming in The Courtship of Winds, DASH Literary Journal, Door is A Jar Magazine, Evening Street Review, The Hollins Critic, MacGuffin, Medicine and Meaning, Mount Hope Magazine, Nonconformist Magazine, Off the Coast, Sage Cigarettes Magazine, and others.