“How the River” by Julia Runcie

Julia Runcie

HOW THE RIVER

Strange that for so many years

I walked among the peopled buildings

and did not think of mountains.

I took my comfort

in the streetlight

and the stoplight.

I lay not wakeful

for the owl’s low hooting in the canyon.

I know the city is not less simply

because I want less of it.

But how different it is, now,

to wade across the tumbled creek

when once I crossed

the out-flung arms of bridges

and was speechless at their beauty

and never for a moment thought

of how the river lay

beneath the bridge.

—from Rattle #49, Fall 2015
Tribute to Scientists

__________

Julia Runcie: “As a field biologist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, I work on a project charged with restoring federally-endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep to their historic range. My chief responsibility is to locate and observe Sierra bighorn in the wild, collecting demographic data that indicates the health and growth of the population. My job takes me deep into the mountains for days at a time, and in this simpler world of rocks and creeks and clouds I often startle myself by finding parallels with human cities. My poems reflect my personal understanding of the ways in which our buildings, roads, and machines can mimic the organisms and systems of the natural world, and how the same thrills derived from the drama of civilization can be found within a mountain range, a desert wash, or the grass and trees and birds in my rural backyard.”