Valley Lights
by Ellen Dooling Reynard
Dawn touches the mountaintops,
snow peaks glint golden lights
above the purple slopes
and shadowed foothills.
The valley rests, invisible.
Sunbeams reach down into the landscape
ignite rivers and lakes, reveal
boundaries between fields and forests,
sharpen outlines of each house, each barn.
Midday sun shortens the shadows,
rivers and lakes shimmer, breezes
sigh through meadows and woodlands,
houses and barns jut from the ground.
Evening dims the skies,
water’s glimmer flickers and fades.
Deer and bears roam
through fields and forests,
man-made angles soften,
night blankets the land.
In moonlight’s wan glow,
rivers and lakes,
meadows and woodlands,
houses and barns,
blend with darkness,
The valley rests, invisible.
***
Ellen Dooling Reynard spent her childhood on a cattle ranch in Jackson, Montana. A one-time editor of Parabola Magazine, she is now retired and lives in Nevada City, California where she writes fiction and poetry. Her poems have been published in various journals including Persimmon, The Ekphrastic Review, Silver Blade and Muddy River Poetry Review.