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And So It Is
Charles Finn

And so it is and is and is
And always will be
This river, this lake
Chapel of birdsong
Temple of my renewing.

I come here early mornings
Take my seat on the folding chair of Now
First light blushing in the east
Night’s blue-bruised sky
Quietly healing.

Oh, I know, life is nothing more
Than the skip of a stone on the water
The fall of a leaf. I know love and loss
Are two sides of the very same coin
And like the river gods of old
I wade into the water
Up to my knees, my waist
Wash my hands, my face.

Wonder begets wonder
I turn and turn and turn
The evidence all around me
Blackbirds top the cattails
Mice breathe and mountains heave
A muskrat carves a wake
Everything I need ever know
Right here, stirring in tails of the trout
The rustle of leaves, passing
In the ragged
Torn brilliance of clouds.

—
Charles Finn is the former editor of the literary and fine arts magazine High Desert Journal, author of Wild Delicate Seconds: 29 Wildlife Encounters and, with photographer Barbara Michelman, author of On a Benediction of Wind: Poems and Photographs from the American West, winner of the 2022 Montana Book Award. With Kim Stafford, he is co-editor of the poetry textbook The Art of Revising Poetry: 21 U.S. Poets on their Drafts, Craft, and Process. A self-taught woodworker and wood artist, he is the owner of A Room of One’s Own as well as FINNFURNITURE & ART, where he builds micro-cabins, furniture, and wood sculptures using reclaimed lumber and materials. He lives in Havre, MT, with his wife Joyce Mphande-Finn and their two cats Tija and Rilke.

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