Three Poems by Carol Amato

Imagine, Stones

Imagine
a stone thrown
rolling to a perfect fit
amongst other stones
or not
perching instead precariously
wobbling wanting balance.

Then imagine
a young meteorite flung
with fury from
a mother asteroid
because the laughing child
defied gravitas
even when told she should not
must not.

Now imagine
such pure joy when she left
the cold stony bone tips of those fingers
her blazing into the bedazzled universe
and plummeting toward Earth
diminished by then to a
stone
rolling to a perfect fit
amongst other stones
or not.



Prayer

Freckled bottom-dweller
the fin-winged cod, like a gilled
bird flies into the net
so shocked that she sprays her
last progeny into the sea
barren of milt and at least
the slim chance of their survival.

The daughter,
in a hungry fitfull sleep,
calls to her father who cannot
leave the long lines until he
finds a way to feed her
by the only means he knows.

Speak to the Fisher of Men
whose blessing of abundance
we remember but abused;
who watches us pit man against
man in the struggle between necessity
and patience for renewal;

who might consider both the
weeping child and the beast whose
glassy eyes mirror ours but cannot
blink or cry.



In the Distance, Crows    

Heading to the roost
the way they do with
single-minded determination
flying alone or with others,

 

she sees them from the window.

On the table the steam from each

bowl rises to meet the faces of

silent strangers.

 

The salt is passed and spoons

clink against the Delft-blue scenes

into the shimmering broth.

 

She imagines the crows stopping

at staging areas to gather forces.

They sound their clarion calls and

then, at dusk, hundreds meet in the

silhouettes of trees greeting one another

with a cacophony of welcomes!

 

Fussing and preening, fluttering

leaves darker than night, they

finally settle into their joined warmth

 

 

 

Carol Amato’s poems have appeared in several magazines and journals.  She feels the goal much of her poetry is to help the reader to visualize and appreciate the interconnectedness between humans and nature.  She is also the author of several nature-based children’s books and a natural science educator in the greater Boston area. Her Let’s Find Out Program carries her across the state in pursuit of the wonder of children!  As an evaluator of children’s books for Barron’s Educational Series (one of her publishers), she is devoted to encouraging writers who also inspire wonder.