River Walk – Flagging Flotsam

When I cleared the trees and arrived at the river, I had a moment of disappointment. The light was nearly gone from the place and the waters were blue and cold without highlights of the sun. But the rushing water sounded magnificent, still high after recent heavy rains, though receded from the flood levels of the fast snow melt when the warm rains began. Hungry for warm colors, a flag of old yellow grass caught my eye where it was caught hanging in bushes midstream. The only other warm patch was some wintry yellow grass still clinging in soil along the shoreline, across from the stranded patch hanging.

I loved the photo captured of the waving flotsam. At the time the scene felt poetic as well, so took up a pen a couple days later to express my inspiration:

Flagging Flotsam

Caught suspended
in steel grey winter
Waters recede below
Leaving a shifting island of rocky debris
And I, so much flotsam
Marking the height of the torrent
That once was.

I, the isolated flag of warmth
Waving in cutting winds, naked
Clinging to a dormant branch
Refuge from tumultuous currents
I feel the stark stick’s life-blood
Pulsing from roots lodged far beneath
Nourishing earth moves in millennia, not moments.

Across the barren chill
I’m mirrored by life.
Hope rises in orphaned chaff
and waves in the desolate wind
My echo, rooted in the soil of life again
Renewed.

-Sheri J. Kennedy   01-16-2018
All Rights Reserved

These images are part of a series posted chronologically from one river walk on Jan 13/18. I wanted to take you along on this beautiful winter day and share what you might have stumbled upon if you were walking in my shoes. To take the whole walk, start with clicking on Along the Way and use right arrow or Older Posts button to scroll through them all. Or use the Search tool just below the posts to find Along the Way. I’ll keep adding images each day until we wander back home.