Nancy Sobanik
Nancy Sobanik (her/she) has work pending in MacQueen’s Quinterly and curated in Synkroniciti Art Journal, Anti-Heroin Chic, One Art, Triggerfish Critical Review, Sparks of Calliope– Best of The Net Nominee 2023 and Pushcart Nomination 2024, Verse-Virtual, Sheila-Na-Gig, The Ekphrastic Review, and various anthologies. She was awarded second and third place in the Maine Postmark Poetry Contest 2023 and 2024, and is working on her debut collection. Visit at Nancy Sobanik on Facebook and nancysobanik.bsky.social
Recipe for Summiting the Southwest Ridge Trail
Wherever you look, collect trees,
then let them collect you.
Beech pocked with bark blight,
white pines made stout
lifting limbs against wind.
Spot glacial erratics
scraped from bedrock, shaggy
bearded with rock tripe lichen.
March feet high from the reach
of roots and rocks.
Release calf burn and sweat,
the feathersong of your breath.
Traverse the open ridge,
unwrap green saddles
whom cloud riders straddle
and cast their shadows.
Blink at the the blue iris
of Moose Pond, glistening
in the watch of the mountain.
Stir the alchemy of alpine grasses
who wave emerald and gold shoots
at passing boots.
Watch Damselflies herd no-see-ums
around alpine bilberry.
If only we could teach them
to darn the blue screen above,
slashed by the invisible
sickle of greenhouse gases.
Thrill to the sight of the fire tower,
whose ancient rungs beckon
the boldest sky climbers.
Crest the bald summit, capped
with daypacks, dogs,
their people.
Gravity speeds descent.
Sit awhile, tip your ears
and imagine you hear
the silent chimes of harebells,
the crackle burst
of orange hawkweed.
Smuggle mountain memory
in your marrow.
Leave no trace,
only the vibration
of your soft tread humming
in the stones.
