CHANGE

~ Written on New Year's Eve, 2012

  150 years after Lincoln signed the

     Emancipation Proclamation.

I    Precipitous
            Glacier ice fields
                  rapid melt worldwide.
                  Unprecedented.
                  Major populations
                  depend on glacial water.

II   Released
            Small blue flowers
                  wave in the wind
                  on a remote western Irish isle.
                  There on Inishbofin
                  I first saw Scabiosa.
                  Now it graces my garden
                  perseveres to early winter.

III  Emancipation
            I planted a maple
                  ten years ago to honor
                  Paul Wellstone's family.
                  Each autumn it cradles 
                  a nest of young goldfinches.
                  Soon to fledge . . .
                  launched into life.