Richard Shaw is an American poet who was born in New Jersey, earned his B.A. from Bennington College and has spent most of his life in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts. His poems have appeared in various journals. A debut collection, The Orchard House, is forthcoming later this year from Antrim House Press.

Residence in the Rain

Sitting on the shore
of Fitzgerald Lake
height of the lavender
water lily bloom
just as it begins to rain

the sound
rising from silence
builds
to an all-encompassing
gamelan

torrent’s
soft mallets
play lily pads
striking flower-petal
xylophones

rain refuses
our being separate
denies us autonomy
draws us in
to become part of its story

passing through
silver veils
we enter stillness
of canyons
inside of the rain

astonished
to discover
in most ephemeral
dwelling
such boundless shelter

On the Second Anniversary
of my Father’s Death

Rising early
heading to the hilltop
to be alone with you
now that you’ve become
the early light

eastern sky
uncloaks in layers
steadily
overtaking night

skiffs of cirrus
assemble
above the horizon
hulls reddening

birds pipe
new bright notes
as dawn materializes
out of nothing

spiced scents
of black-eyed Susans
intensify memory

it’s the simplest things
you showed me
I am finally
able to learn

arriving late
like this light
with all it knows

Beginning of October

Whisperings over the field
the faithful among the goldenrod
returning gifts of summer
bow like mourners
to a lament
sung by katydids