LOVE LETTERS FOR EPIRUS*

Drawn to rock and green
mossy patterns I have not seen.
And on an “old grey stone”
I sit and take up mossin’.*

Waterfall, a trickle from up high,
I love you.
But your slender figure
worries me.

My dear River
you are cold,
as are the rivers of my dreams,
clear, cold, and delicious.
Drink up and
thank you.

Are you now a postcard, Kallarites?
School closed; fifteen humans left.
I’ve walked your steep trail
thinking of wisdom lost.
And water of the earth trickles
from the corners of my eyes.

Dear refuge
between verdant forest and blue heaven.
You gather beings
grow stories
and touch hearts.
Love you.

* Epirus. A department (region/province) in northern Greece.

** “mossin’”. Contraction of mossing and a verbing (denominalization) of the word “moss”. To chill, to relax and be still like moss.

Bob Jickling
Professor Emeritus, Lakehead University