IVY
Deep blanket of green smothers the
ancient cabin, creeps
with stealthy digits across every wall
Invades every crevice, peers
into blind windows, waves bright flag tendrils
above roofline and chimney
Worms itself—pale—through cracked stonework
inside the house, up toward sill
seeking the dim green square where it
Looks at itself while I wrestle
with clippers and pruning shears through
layers and layers before I
Find the deep chaos, the muscle
the sinew, the twisted, tortured
root-river. Dark deadwood dance—yet
Unalterable green instinct
running, reaching, rejoining light.
ancient cabin, creeps
with stealthy digits across every wall
Invades every crevice, peers
into blind windows, waves bright flag tendrils
above roofline and chimney
Worms itself—pale—through cracked stonework
inside the house, up toward sill
seeking the dim green square where it
Looks at itself while I wrestle
with clippers and pruning shears through
layers and layers before I
Find the deep chaos, the muscle
the sinew, the twisted, tortured
root-river. Dark deadwood dance—yet
Unalterable green instinct
running, reaching, rejoining light.
About the Author
Eva-Maria Sher’s poetry has appeared in After Happy Hour Review, The Adirondack Review, Big Scream, Bluestem, Brief Wilderness, Cadillac Cicatrix, California Quarterly, Cape Rock, Door Is A Jar Magazine, Dos Passos Review, Doubly Mad, Drunk Monkeys, East Jasmine Review, Euphony, Forge, Free State Review, Front Range Review, GW Review, Hawaii Pacific Review, The HitchLit Review, The Hollins Critic, I-70 Review, Ignatian Literary Review, ken*again, The MacGuffin, October Hill Magazine, Old Red Kimono, OxMag, The Paragon Journal, Penmen Review, Pennsylvania English, Poetic Sun, Poydras Review, Prism Review, riverSedge, Rougarou, Ship of Fools, Slag Review, Soundings East, Third Wednesday, Torrid Literature Journal, Umbrella Factory Magazine, Vending Machine Press, The Virginia Normal, Visitant, Westview, Willow Review, and Your Impossible Voice.
Born in Germany at the end of WWII, she was already writing poems as a child. At seventeen, Eva emigrated to the United States, studied literature, taught, raised three children, and has in the past ten years rediscovered her passion for writing. She lives on Whidbey Island, WA, where she offers workshops for children and adults in poetry, book-making, SoulCollage®, and puppetry. Eva recently published two books of poems: Chewing Darkness and The Old Villa.