A Poem by Patricia L. Goodman

Searching for Paradise
Chadds Ford, PA, 1965

Our horses walk like whispers through tall grass of a ridge.  A sweet-meadow smell drifts up the slope--milkweed in full bloom.
A small herd of deer scatters.  Groundhogs dash for burrows.  A red-tailed hawk sends its raspy screech tumbling through air.

    growing family . . .
    this charming farm
    beckons

From high on a hill we discover a hidden stream shining below, laced with swallows and dragonflies that swoop and glide.
Embossed by sun and clouds, it seems to reach up, invite us closer, beg us to stay.

    our secret
    this unknown water . . .
    perfect new life

Patricia L. Goodman is a widowed mother and grandmother, a graduate of Wells College with a degree in Biology and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.  Her career involved breeding and training horses with her orthodontist husband on their farm in Chadds Ford, PA.  She has had poems published in the likes of Aries, The Broadkill Review, Sugar Mule, Requiem Magazine, Jellyfish Whispers, Fox Chase Review; Mistletoe Madness, Storm Cycle, Poised in Flight (all from Kind of a Hurricane Press), On Our Own (Silver Boomer Books), and The Widow's Handbook.  Her first book, Closer to the Ground, was a finalist in the 2014 Dogfish Head Poetry Competition and she has twice won the Delaware Press Association Communications Award in poetry.  She lives on the banks of the Red Clay Creek in Delaware, where she is surrounded by the natural world she loves.