Two Poems by Richard Luftig

Two Poems by Richard Luftig

Headwaters
they are there
        to tell us
that something bigger
        than ourselves
is coming
        up ahead


or around
        some
oxbow bend
        that awaits
downstream,
then only
        to drop
        over
                unexpected falls.


or maybe it will
        be just
the fast water
        massaging the rocks
smoothed full
        with moss
and time.


but the lessons
always
        left best
in the guessing.


whatever is
        to come,
this river,
this fast water
has earned
the right
        to survive,


to re- write
        its life
again
and again,
        to choose


to tell
        it’s future
in any way
that it wills.


Impatience
I want to be first
to plant my spring garden.
But each spade hole of dirt
fills full of mud and water.
In the tree a blue jay laughs.

Author’s Bio: Richard Luftig is a professor of educational psychology and special education at Miami University in Ohio. He is a recipient of the Cincinnati Post-Corbett Foundation Award for Literature and a semi finalist for the Emily Dickinson Society Award. His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals in the United States and internationally in Japan, Canada, Australia, Europe, Thailand, Hong Kong and India. His third chapbook was published by Dos Madres Press.