LATE MORNING HIKE-KU
Two eucalyptus:
one shaggy,
the other clean.
Fraternal twins.
*
Little flower,
you are
your own breath mint:
summergreen.
*
Double-trunked oak,
you are now doing the splits—
one self holding sky,
the other reaching across the stream.
*
Sun, so bright within the pool,
you bring these striders,
one at a time,
to sudden glory.
*
Leaf of toyon—
dark-green above, light-green below—
why don't you
turn over for an even tan?
*
Santa Cruz, you
are an island dream at noon
across the channel,
ready to wake into clouds.
OLD PAIR
Old pair of eucalyptus,
the trail passes between your pillars,
an open door,
and you say, Come on in.
ROWS OF FUNGUS
Rows of fungus on a log,
you could be the barnacles
on the side of a ship
as this old tree
sails on its last voyage,
into the soil.
STREAM BANK
The stream bank is caught
in a net like a giant fish—
but it will keep swimming
to the silty sea.
Paul Willis has published eight collections of poetry, among the most recent of which is Somewhere to Follow (Slant Books, 2021). Individual poems have appeared in Poetry, Christian Century, Writer’s Almanac, and the Best American Poetry series. With Leslie Leyland Fields, he has co-edited A Radiant Birth: Advent Readings for a Bright Season (InterVarsity Press, 2023). Paul is an emeritus professor of English at Westmont College and a former poet laureate of Santa Barbara, California.