‘Chancellorsville to Culloden’ by Kerry Dexter of Tallahassee, Florida

I hear you in the silence of the trees
The Wilderness, they called it once, found
in many places. Walking now, my heart sees
the past, time before this darkened ground

rang with battle, ran with blood. Monuments
now mark what happened then. At sunset
figures walk these fields anew. Old laments
are sung again. Again they rise. And yet

There is time for hope. When pipers call
across  dark hills and through wild glens.
Winds of autumn rise, snows of winter fall
still there is time for peace and knowing again

Bright hope in our hearts, through love’s lasting line
In the silence of trees God’s grace to find.

Kerry Dexter is a writer, photographer, and educator. Her writing on the arts has appeared in national Geographic Traveller, Strings, Journey to Scotland, Ireland and the Americas, and other publications, and her poetry has been published in The Stony Thursday Book and the journal Revival. Currenlty, she is working on a book about Irish American musicians.

This poem is among the entries for the Society of Classical Poets’ 2012 Poetry Competition.

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