Believing in Love in the Adirondack Mountains: A Freestyle Poem

How brave your voice sings

"here I am",

Red-eyed Vireo,

wavering each note from on high

up on the green boughs

of bent and twisted winter's fir

way up on Bald-Face Mountain

with the blood-stained rocks

of the Ausable River far below.
***

Weighted by the sweat I carry on my neck

despite my wobbly knees

I find I can sing along

"here I am" again

despite the beating

and my wrists stained by "stop it"

because I believe

I can turn rape into love

and John Brown's sword into ploughshares.
***

And the silence of a million voices crying

changes to sing "Here I am"

note by wavery note

up into the heights where the stars are found.

"Here I am"

believing in the healing power of love

because nothing

is more lonely than singing

"Where are you?"