Ken Turner

Sudden Light at Birdcall Creek after Wang Wei Thoughts still, breath by breath,and flowers droop. The night hangs empty. Stem-tip sepals release their cloththread by thread: the petals stretch free as if exhaling lightly, hover, twist and sink. Cast-off slips feather the air with scent, cover the ground in a carpet of fallen drape.Worms tighten and stir, wrinklethe night. A creek whispers back. Sudden moonrise—birds wake—from the hills their fluster and cries echo. Dropped in the water, moon sheets crinkle and feathers dust the bank like snow. Ken Turner has lived and taught in Asia, Africa, and Latin America as well as the US. His poems have appeared in print and online in publications such as Southern Poetry Review, Atlanta Review, Silk Road, Waccamaw Journal, The Summerset Review, and Asian Cha. His work has appeared in several anthologies and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize as well. He practices with Lakeland Insight Meditation Group in Lakeland, Florida.