The Dawning
by Jeannie E. Roberts
Just beyond the six-panel dock
daybreak resonates
with electricity.
Hydropower enlivens the rising light.
There’s a fine mist on Lake Wissota
and the dam answers with firefly-like glow.
I awoke for this moment
when the heavens attend to washes of color
balance in blends
of orange / apricot
amber / rose.
I awoke for this moment
when the union between water and sky
opens / lifts
with yawns of rust
touches of bisque / gold.
Here the gift emerges
where the horizon cradles
the birth of morning.
The dawning stirs awakenings
awakenings free beginnings
and daybreak brightens
just beyond the dock.
PHOTO: Sunrise, Lake Wissota with lights from Wissota Hydroelectric Dam, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Photo © Jeannie E. Roberts, all rights reserved, used by permission.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: We live on Lake Wissota right next door to the Wissota Hydroelectric Dam, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, USA. Sunrises are beautiful with the refection of the dam’s lights; they remind me of Vincent van Gogh’s painting Starry Night Over the Rhône (1888).
NOTE: Lake Wissota was formed by the construction of the Wissota Hydroelectric Dam on the Chippewa River, completed in 1917. The dam was built by the Wisconsin-Minnesota Light and Power Company. An engineer on the project, Louis G. Arnold, named the lake by combining the beginning of “Wisconsin” and the ending of “Minnesota”. The dam is now owned and operated by Xcel Energy, and is capable of producing 36 megawatts.” (Source: Wikipedia.)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jeannie E. Roberts has authored six books, including The Wingspan of Things (Dancing Girl Press, 2017), Romp and Ceremony (Finishing Line Press, 2017), Beyond Bulrush (Lit Fest Press, 2015), Nature of it All (Finishing Line Press, 2013), and Rhyme the Roost! A Collection of Poems and Paintings for Children (Daffydowndilly Press, an imprint of Kelsay Books, 2019). Her work appears in North American and international online magazines, print journals, and anthologies. She is poetry reader and editor of the online literary magazine Halfway Down the Stairs. When she’s not reading, writing, or editing, you can find her drawing and painting, or outdoors photographing her natural surroundings.
POETRY and PLACES 