Below is an excerpt from Vagabonds and Sundries: Poetic Remnants of Lives Past, the much-anticipated new poetry collection by L.M. Browning, award-winning author of Oak Wise: Poetry Exploring an Ecological Faith, Ruminations at Twilight: Poetry Exploring the Sacred, and Fleeting Moments of Fierce Clarity: Journal of a New England Poet.
In this new collection, Browning bring us a poetical coming to terms, as she touches on topics such as emotional trauma, spiritual disillusionment, and lost love. It is a dirge of grief and empowerment, highlighting both sorrow as well as the spirit that remains even after all else has left us.
Vagabonds and Sundries is now available in hardcover. Look for it on Amazon or B&N or ask for it in your local indie bookstore. Visit our Store»
The Tides Driving
Against the Seawalls
The doldrums of this gray village
Can weigh or soothe.
Embanked behind the fog,
I meander the narrow slate sidewalks
Towards the point
Where I know the gales
Will drown out that voice telling me
All I must do,
All I should do,
All I could have done.
I’ll sit on the storm walls
And watch with blank mind
The slow path of the trawlers
Looking sympathetically upon them,
The chipped paint shedding from their hulls
And rusted joints bleeding red,
Knowing they know what it is
To weather the world.