Reflection In October

The trees are kindling fires on the hillsides.
In the telescopic eye of a vulture, I see myself,
a tiny woman walking beside a pond.

Oh, to be in the place I am: ducks floating,
pulling light after them. One skids, feet out,
wings beating, sliding in beside itself
on water so frail even light can cut it.
But it holds her up, it holds her up,

and the grass is transmitting messages
like a song which hasn’t yet been written.
A minor key still offers melody. Beauty
comes to me as if for the first time, singular and shy,
a song leaking through the seams of the world.

—Jeanne Murray Walker

Copyright © 2012 by the author or Christianity Today/Books & Culture magazine.Click here for reprint information on Books & Culture.

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Books & Culture was a bimonthly review that engaged the contemporary world from a Christian perspective. Every issue of Books & Culture contained in-depth reviews of books that merit critical attention, as well as shorter notices of significant new titles. It was published six times a year by Christianity Today from 1995 to 2016.

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