“Rhapsody in the Rising Windstorms”–an ekphrastic poem by Bev Gorbet

Poplar trees line a country road in Ontario in fall (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

My heart will rise to follow in the fierce rhapsody:
Wind’s cry and rapture;
Mystical beauty in the primal call, wildernesses,
Mad windstorm  moving from treetop to treetop,
From branch to bending branch, from singing leaf to leaf
Moving, high sheltering in the high tumult, skies above
Midst songs of midnight, darkest shadow, deepest shades

Beech trees in Petroglyph Park, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

The great beauty in the wind’s mystic path
Darknesses far beyond into the cathedrals of the night:
Airs, echo and sighs, dreams,
Thoughts of all our  tomorrows:
Sacred windstorms at the beginning of time:
A glorious sun and the rising dawn lights

Sumac shrubs blaze in a field in Ontario (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

All promise was once ours,
Echoes of dreams once ours,
All beauty once ours and days never to be forgotten
Dawn lights and dusty twilights:
The songs of the wind’s rapture,
Fierce windstorm sighs, cries through branch and bough…

Leaves on the forest floor, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Oh! memory hold strong
Windsong: mystic soul of creation: the mystic fire, the holy flame;
Worlds ablaze
The long sacred journey into mystery
Beauty transfigured, wind’s message and haunting
Windstorm and mystical  worlds, sanctuary far away
All passion spent.

Sunset over farmer’s field in early winter, ON (photo and rendition by Nina Munteanu)

Bev Gorbet is a Toronto poet and retired school teacher. She has published several poems with the Retired Teachers Organization and most recently in “Literary Connection IV: Then and Now” (In Our Words Inc., 2019), edited by Cheryl Antao Xavier.

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press(Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” was released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in June 2020.

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