Issue Thirty - Summer 2017

Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

By Kay Mullen

We hear it first, the roar of it,
        then a glimpse through stands 

of cedar fronds and maple limbs
until we see in a clearing the surge
        of water pounding down. 

The trail winds behind the charge,
        droplets of power plunge 
like a rushing sheet, an endless flow,
        a blur of shapes. 

        When the Falls captures
unsolved mysteries in ice to contain 
itself in time, light diffuses 

through the white wall to pause 
        in space for a season,

then resumes the plunge
and fan of waters far downstream
        to only a trickle over stones.

Copyright Mullen 2017

Kay Mullen ’s poems have appeared in various poetry journals including Valparaiso Poetry Review, American Life in Poetry, Pontoon and others. She has authored three poetry books and is the recipient of Pushcart Prize nominations, and Best of the Net. Kay earned a Master of Fine Arts from Pacific Lutheran University and currently teaches and lives in Tacoma.

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