Jonathan Humphrey

Saddling Swift-Moving Clouds (A Tonic for Trying Times)

Consider splashing your face with water from the horse trough. Start by dipping your forefinger and running it along your eyebrow. The wind’s chill on that hallowed crop of damp hair. (The Holy Spirit does this with the spilled blood of martyrs, but you need only the trough water.) Find a fixed point in the distant hills. Hang the weight of the day there like a rain-soaked garment. Use this nakedness, this kindness, like the horses rounding made-up corners of air. Use your body to leave your body. Notice the sensation blooming at the soles of your feet. This is hovering. Beneath you are stones and withered grass. 

dogwood blossoms
something softens
the hawk's gaze

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Note: “dogwood blossoms” first appeared in Wales Haiku Journal Spring 2022.

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About the Author

Jonathan Humphrey’s work has recently appeared in Acorn, Frogpond, Modern Haiku, and The Heron’s Nest. With a fondness for whiskey and whippoorwills, he divides his time between the lights of Nashville and the woods of his native Kentucky.