The Call by Elaine Fletcher Chapman

The fog is not burning off this morning.

No hint of sun. The voice in my head

Is about dusk light. I’m still waiting

for the Call. Yesterday we were reminded

that the Kingdom of Heaven is now.

Like when we drive up Halton

and a young deer is standing in the middle

of the lane looking straight at us. Or we find

a discarded painting of calla lilies at the bottom

of the hill. Stop and put it in the back

of the car, bring it home and lean it against the shed.

Six hanging baskets of flowers line the driveway:

shades of pink, peach, red, yellows, purple.

Today I’m downstairs in my study. I can pretend

I am alone in the house. When are things ever perfect?

I return to Basho’s Narrow Road. Inside

I found an envelope with a Denise Levertov postage stamp:

A thank you note written from South Lake Tahoe ten years ago.

She writes: Thank you for talking with me and in guiding me to clarity.

So glad we meet in Boston. Perhaps the waiting is over.

A book, an endorsement, a stamp.

Artist’s Statement

Poetry is the central theme running through my life, the reading and writing as spiritual practice. I believe poetry saves my life every day. After moving from the East Coast one year ago, I am attempting to discover what makes a person a West Coast writer/poet. Perhaps it has to do with the weather.

Elaine Fletcher Chapman (formerly Elaine Walters McFerron) is the author of two volume of poems, Reservoir and Hunger for Salt published by Saint Julian Press and a letterpress chapbook, Double Solitude published by Green River Press. She worked on staff at The Bennington Writing Seminars, Bennington College for 18 years. She founded The Writer’s Studio where she teaches poetry, nonfiction and ongoing classes: On Keeping a Journal and Yoga Nidra & Sacred Writing© and Yoga Nidra Meditation.  For the last 40 years she has worked as a therapist in private practice. She is a Certified iRest Yoga Nidra teacher. Her poems have been published in Hoot, Cloudbank, Poetry Pacific, 8 Poems, Rabid Oak, The Tishman Review, The EcoTheo Review, The Cortland Review, Connotation, The Sun, Calyx, Poet Lore, 5AM, Salamander, and others. She was guest blogger on The Best American Poetry Blog and The Solstice Literary Magazine blog. Find trailers for books and poetry videos on her website: www.elainefletcherchapman.com She can be found on Instagram @elaine.fletcherchapman