When we observe calmly,
Bashō said, we discover
all things have their fulfillment.
Overturned canoes along
Lake Dillon’s western shore
rendered into general shapes,
valley fields made tabula-rasa white.
He sat alone in the cabin watching
cloud shadows range mountains.
Solitude and morning laziness,
pine branches sagging
beneath late-season snow.
Todd Copeland is the author of the narrative nonfiction book
The Immortal Ten, the second edition of which is forthcoming from Baylor University Press. His other works include
Like All Light (2022), winner of the Barry Spacks Poetry Prize from Gunpowder Press, and the poetry chapbook
The Book as Knife (Ravenna Press, 2021). His poems have appeared in
Image, The Journal,
Southern Poetry Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review,
Lake Effect, and
Sugar House Review, among other publications, and his essays have been published in such journals as
Literary Imagination,
JNT: Journal of Narrative Theory, and
Media, War & Conflict. A native of Ohio, he lives in Waco, Texas. More information can be found at
toddcopelandwriter.com.