This week’s poem, by Michelle Menting, brings us into the beauty and grace of a woodland lake. I love this poem’s tender rush of noticing, its imagery of the intricate interconnections of beings, and its rising momentum toward gratitude, toward reverence. 

Menting lives in Whitefield. She teaches creative writing and poetry at the University of Southern Maine and directs Gibbs Library in Washington, Maine.

Poets, please note that submissions to Deep Water are open now and through the end of the year. Deep Water is especially eager to share poems by Black writers, writers of color, indigenous writers, LGBTQ+ writers, and other underrepresented voices. You’ll find a link to submit in the credits below.

This Cathedral

is where the waves shush agates,

     where ungulates clip moss,

where falcons smirk from lichen

     tendrils on lighthouse nests,

where grebes skim the surface—

     race the evening glass of lake—

is this place you know as consistent

     church: hymn of truth & willowing

hum, the kind you hold full

     of breath, of heart. This message

you cup as you bow in prayer.

– Michelle Menting

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Megan Grumbling is a poet and writer who lives in Portland. Deep Water: Maine Poems is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. “This Cathedral,” copyright 2022 by Michelle Menting, was first published as a broadside for the Upper Peninsula Poet Laureate Project. It appears by permission of the author. Submissions to Deep Water are open now and through the end of the year. For more information, go to https://www.mainewriters.org/deep-water.