The Beginning by Alexandra Ernst
Nothing prepares for love’s
speed, its grave force devouring
even a century’s gnarled roots,
the rolling hills
from where a quiet feeling
becomes a pounding
of snow, earth,
and sky.
A wave might be its sister
lapping at the edge of
an unbreakable shore.
But love does not
wait for a moment of peace
or for any humbleness
or stillness.
Gathering rocks and trees
into its hold, it does not
wait to convince
but powers ahead of the wind.
And, like an avalanche,
changes the face
of the world.
Alexandra’s poetry has appeared in IO Magazine, The Minetta Review, and The Anthology of New England Writers. Though she has lived in Paris for the past fifteen years, she spends each summer hiking with her husband and two small children in the Adirondacks and in her former home state of Vermont.
