Alison Hicks
I could have used the set of traveling colors,
the brush with its barrel of water.
Winter hues:
ice-covered shallows,
dry stalks, ragged heads of phragmites,
sparrows that flew back and forth in the grove.
Plank bridge across the neck
where ice gave way to deeper water.
Quiet, considering the highway,
the train tracks, the airport,
walking here after drop-off.
Squares of color arrayed,
shifting with sunset,
paper holding the rinse.
Alison Hick’s third book of poems, Knowing Is a Branching Trail, received the 2021 Birdy Prize from Meadowlark Books. Previous books include two full-length collections of poems, You Who Took the Boat Out (Unsolicited Press, 2017) and Kiss (PS Books, 2011); a chapbook, Falling Dreams (Finishing Line Press, 2006); and a novella, Love: A Story of Images(AWA Press, 2004), a finalist in the 1999 Quarterly West Novella Competition. Her work has appeared in Eclipse, Fifth Wednesday, Gargoyle, Louisville Review, Permafrost, Poet Lore, and other journals. She was named a finalist for the 2021 Beullah Rose Prize from Smartish Pace, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Green Hills Literary Lantern. Other awards include the 2011 Philadelphia City Paper Poetry Prize and two Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowships. She is the founder of Greater Philadelphia Wordshop Studio, which offers community-based writing workshops.