UP HERE IN MAINE
( JOHN WELLIVER 1929-2005)

Up here today in Belfast
in my kayak
by an island off Maine
back in an ice fishing spot
at Penobscot Bay
close by woodland streams
thinking of Neil Welliver's
spare drawings
in his rough landscapes
of twining bare birch trees
painting in an underbrush
of snowy wonder
in "Shadow"
as an informer of art
defining nature for us
as a chorus of warblers
and other nesting birds
making their intensity
to partner a way by me
at dawn in a poster- happiness
from my resting words
as an intercessor in dreams
feeling like St. John on Patmos
composing and delivering
spiritual letters
as a visionary poet
it seems on an island marina
hovering over this river bed
to be sharing in Canada.