Mary Kratt, In Praise Of

Mary Kratt
IN PRAISE OF

Trails
walked or yet to
gather in
by eyes,
climbing
footsore,
how joy surrounds this
tree, boulder, and
startle vista.

Leave fingernails
of worry,
froth
of fret way down
the mountain, go
daughter, son where
you’ve not been
try danger
green silence
blatant color
the call
to courage
up ahead.

Bio: Mary Kratt has seventeen published books of poetry, history, and biography and lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is a fellow of the MacDowell, twice winner of the Blumenthal Writers and Readers Series, she won the Fortner Writer and Community Award from St. Andrews College in 1994. In 2000, her book, Small Potatoes, won the Brockman/Campbell Book Award for poetry, and Spirit Going Barefoot won the Oscar Arnold Young poetry book award..