"Journey with Man and Crows" by Raphael Kosek

The saw and swing of it

       that beauty ride, that gorgeous gallop

           that whistling in the hills,

swanning on the water

      as our boats glide unwavering

           through the deep valleys

cutting color like stained glass until

      riotous rising of the pheasant

           from the soft sedge of bottomlands,

rising like the very heart itself

      in the man who looks long

           who breathes the air – incredulous

at what knocks in his chest, what

      floats over the river lifting

           to the tops of wintered trees

where the crows gather and gather

      adding their cries to his life,

their noteless unwritten music

piercing old timber, deepening distance.