Back in 1996, I had the good fortune of literally sitting at the feet of the great Vermont Poet, David Budbill, as he shared his poems with my Cohort at Vermont College of Norwich University in Montpelier, Vermont. He was so earthy, in fact, David was as much as “earthy monk” as any person I ever met. He was amazing, humble, down to earth, true blue Vermonter (although he was born in Cleveland, OH). I love his words and this spectacular poem came into my Inbox and I looked David up online only to learn that he died back in September 2016.
Saddened by this, it is right and fitting that one of my favorite poems of David Budbill be shared here…especially since I now reside in the neighboring state of New Hampshire and I am deep in the soulful state of Winter
Enjoy David Budbill
Tonight at sunset walking on the snowy road,
my shoes crunching on the frozen gravel, firstthrough the woods, then out into the open fields
past a couple of trailers and some pickup trucks, I stopand look at the sky. Suddenly: orange, red, pink, blue,
green, purple, yellow, gray, all at once and everywhere.I pause in this moment at the beginning of my old age
and I say a prayer of gratitude for getting to this eveninga prayer for being here, today, now, alive
in this life, in this evening, under this sky.
soulpatch.net 