Gail Thomas
Gail Thomas’ books are Trail of Roots, Leaving Paradise, Odd Mercy, Waving Back, No Simple Wilderness, and Finding the Bear. Her poems have been widely published in journals and anthologies including CALYX, Beloit Poetry Journal, North American Review, Cumberland River Review, and South Florida Poetry Journal. Among her awards are the Seven Kitchens Press A.V. Christie Award for Trail of Roots, the Charlotte Mew Prize from Headmistress Press for Odd Mercy, the Narrative Poetry Prize from Naugatuck River Review, the Massachusetts Center for the Book’s “Must Read” for Waving Back, and the Quartet Review’s Editor’s Choice Prize. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony and Ucross, and several poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She teaches poetry with Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshops, visits schools and libraries with her therapy dog Sunny, and supports immigrant and refugee families in Western Massachusetts.
Without You
Let your screen grow dark
silence your phone
hide your to-do list
cancel your plans and walk
to the edge of the gorge
move your eyes slowly down
rock walls furred with moss
and glowing emerald ferns
plant your feet and focus
on the rushing river
as it swirls and eddies
the way it reaches back
on itself but still foams forward
never mind the old voices
or tomorrow in this
stopwatch moment
pay attention to movement
stillness and balance
listen to a catbird mimic water
the shrill of a red-tailed hawk
watch for the silken robe of trout
the float of storm loosened limbs
unclench your jaw
see how everything goes on
without you
