It’s in there,

in the white clam

shell, the blue claw,

the wild mallard’s

green head. The desire

is in there,

in the lavender fields,

the berry patches,

the corn rows.

Out there

among the salty pitch

pines and white oak,

the butterfly milk weed,

the golden rod.

Like a lighthouse pulse

to the jetty, the dunes,

the indigo oyster shell,

the bluffs – it lives here

beach after beach after harbor

after cove, vine after vine.

Come here.

It’s in there,

the desire. You know

the way, the hour;

come out

from among the ruins.

Imagination attracts it, holds

it, serves it to the willing,

wandering artist.

Valerie Griggs has been published in Typishly, Avatar Review, California Quarterly, Coachella Review, Door Is A Jar, Green Hills Literary Lantern, I-70 Review, The Ledge, Litbreak Magazine, Apricity Magazine, Paragon Journal, Pisgah Review, Neologism Poetry Journal, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Sanskrit Magazine, Slant: A Journal of Poetry, Steam Ticket, Streetlight Magazine, and Bitterroot. She won first place in the 2019 Performing Poets Association poetry contest and the poem was published in its Literary Review, Vol. 23. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College (’85) and an MA in Religious Studies, Spirituality/Spiritual Direction from Fordham University. She works as a full-time writing consultant/administrator and as an adjunct English instructor at Molloy College.