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Mark Belair

MAY SNOWFALL

Early Spring by Akseli Gallen-Kallela

A dusting of snow
one early May morning
textured the granite boulders and ground cover
out my window, displacing
my sense of season and, suddenly,
of years, a buried feeling
resurfacing like a rock
from melting snow, a calm
I couldn’t place until I recalled
a sheltered child—myself—
looking out to the sheer
presence of an ancient world
dusted with what seemed, at the time,
gentle mystery.

 

About the writer:
Mark Belair’s poems have appeared in numerous journals, including Alabama Literary Review, Harvard Review, and Michigan Quarterly Review. He is the author of seven collections of poems and two works of fiction: Stonehaven (Turning Point, 2020) and its sequel, Edgewood (Turning Point, 2022). He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize multiple times, as well as for a Best of the Net Award.

Image: Early Spring by Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931). Oil on canvas. 9.2 x 10.8 inches. 1883. Public domain.

OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and its imprint Buttonhook Press, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation supporting writers and artists worldwide.

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