Featured Fifty Poetry: The Prodigal

Walter Worden is a visual artist who has been writing poetry for decades. Born and raised in New York State's Hudson Valley, his recent return to the region has inspired a focus on nature as a means to comment on the human condition. His poems have appeared in various literary publications such as Anthology, Chronogram and The Literary Review. He is currently producer and host of a reading and performance series.

The Prodigal

This is the land that knows me.
It has felt my small shadow fall upon its
breast and has called to me through the
wide breach in the low hills.
I have heard its soft voice
hovering above the spine of the Shawangunks,
over cliff and clove, calling the eagle home.
Its face is the feeble light
seen across the open field,
burning through the stubborn mists.
Contentedly, the green river curls at its feet.

And here now I stand in the snow and torrents
and the certain rage of every season,
Yet, how little I have suffered,
how small my long journey
knowing that in my
quick and rude return
this land and every stone would still forgive.