‘Their giddy arrival’

Apple tree in blossom

“I might have stayed in this world

forever without seeing them,

or feeling their giddy

arrival in my skin….”

—From “Flowering Tree,’’ by Nora Mitchell (born 1956), Vermont-based poet and teacher

Here’s the whole poem.

'A blue-gray glow'

“Underneath,

mice and shrews are moving,

the dog can hear them down there,

out of sight and reach….’’

“a whole landscape laid out

in a blue-gray glow….’’

— From “Listening Through Snow,’’ by Burlington, Vt.-based poet and teacher Nora Mitchell