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Peter Newton

As Fate Would Have It

I know enough to keep quiet
while the dog slides down the slope of the hill
like an otter might a muddy riverbank.
At the bottom she runs right back up
as if life were a ride to repeat again and again.
I know and I don’t know.
The hillside. The dog in her prime.
The wildflowers that greet me here
most every weekend. I know to be still
as the dog shows me again
how to let gravity take you
for as long and as far as possible.
This is how you relax your body
to flow like the grass flows
on a sunny hillside through patches
of tiny orange flowers.

sidewalk penny
as if luck
could be carried off

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About the Author

Peter Newton is the author of several books in the Japanese short form traditions of haiku, haibun, and tan renga. His newest book of haiku is The Space We Open To (Red Moon Press, 2020).