Blackbird Archive
← v21n3, Spring 2023
Poetry · Volume 21, Number 3

The Lake in Winter

Michael Chitwood

When it’s quiet like this,

no boats, no WaveRunners,

the sun in sequins on the calm water,

you can almost hear

the plinkings leaking

from the spring’s mossy bowl

up on the mountain,

the trickle that starts the trek,

that slight spill

that becomes this tonnage of silence.

naturesolitude
Michael Chitwood

Born and raised in the foothills of the Virginia Blue Ridge, Michael Chitwood is now a free-lance writer living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He is a graduate of Emory & Henry College (BA) and the University of Virginia (MFA). Ohio Review Books has published two books of his poetry— Salt Works (1992) and Whet (1995). His third book, The Weave Room, was published by The University of Chicago Press in the Phoenix Poets series (Spring 1998). His collection of essays, Hitting Below the Bible Belt, was published by Down Home Press in 1998.