Safe Habor in the Night // Jason Latta

Rains cause my waters to rise.
Crushing tidal pressure
as the waves of all
my little responsibilities coalesce,
putting me at the intersection
of their collisions.
The email I never sent,
the paper I could be drafting,
the reading to do, the friend I haven’t called,
this I haven’t done, that I haven’t done, I didn’t do, I pushed off, I failed-
Stop. I remind myself to breathe.

The Golden Falls by Grace Russmann
The Golden Falls
Grace Russmann // Photography

So, I stride away, 
I go into the night filled
with no disturbances,
except for the crickets I scare silent.
I tread with an even tempo,
to force my breath to follow,
and to make it slow
I put some stretch into my gait.
Focusing my pace distracts
my preoccupation. 
My castle against the waves,
as I go to a place
from which I can gaze.

I survey the sky:
a sea of smooth, uninterrupted clouds,
a cool breeze to force away
the boiling heat within.
I relish the silence
and the emptiness.
The lack of presences
producing a lack of pressures.
Draining the ocean within
of the excess rain water.
Slowly returning to the lake it usually is,
my lake, a lake as smooth as the sky
which has given me harbor.


Author:

Jason Lattta

I’m a Computer Science senior intrigued by language. When I had the opportunity to take a poetry class last semester, I got the chance to try something new and fun.

Artist:

Grace Russmann

Grace Russmann is from Avoca, Iowa. She is a Junior majoring in Advertising with a minor in Business.