Like the Psalm that opens her poem, Bethany Reid invites us to praise and rejoice with her poem “Morning at Glen Cove”. With Mary Oliver-esque aptitude and grace, Bethany awakens us to the holiness of nature, the wild hymns of its birds and beasts, and that divine moment of first light, daybreak ushering its avian herald down through the radiance like an angel. We here at The Dewdrop wish we could exist forever in this morning on full riotous display in Bethany’s poem “Morning at Glen Cove”. We’ll revisit this poem time and again, and we encourage you to do the same.
Morning at Glen Cove
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
–Psalm 100, NIV
After a night of wind the cove sings.
Under cold water, a skein of herring,
above, a skein of glaucous-
winged gulls. Scraw of bald eagle
and great blue heron, sky brimming,
unfurled. In the early morning dark
sea lions bark, hoarse with so much praise.
Sunrise offers a kingfisher
chittering down the pink light.
Bethany Reid
Bethany Reid has four books of poems, including Sparrow, which won the 2012 Gell Poetry Prize. Her chapbook, The Thing with Feathers, was published by Ravenna Press in 2020. Read more at http://www.bethanyareid.com.