Molly Frederick’s most recent poem to appear here was “Some Good Things” (April 2019). 

Woodpile
By Molly Frederick

Still there—
just where it was the last time I looked,
and the time before that, and all those times
before that—
A jumble of firewood, crisp-edged and clean,
more than a cord of it,
open to the moods and vicissitudes
of the sky.
Straw-bright in sunlight, butterscotch-rich
in shade.
Disorderly, plain, the woodpile
settles an account with
a leafy past and a fiery future.
Shining, seeming to ascend into a space
reserved just for it, something speaks of
acceptance and inevitabilities
in the vintage language of wood—
Until the heart finally opens,
lifting light to light.