Paint & Poetry: Spring 2026

Willows
by Jack Jelinski

The essence of spring
can be found in giant willows
whose roots seek depths
of sweet-scented earth
to siphon water from subterranean streams
quickening
their leafy embrace of the moon.

Go and sit amidst the bright halos
of their delicate leaves
budding greeny-tipped with life
just as the setting sun
transforms them into golden flames.

Then close your eyes
and feel spring
sparkle on your skin.
 

For the Trout
by Greg Keeler

Cutthroat
You were here first.
I can see why in
the way the rivers don’t
rob you of what the streams gave.

The dim rosettes on your
sides live behind your spots
in another time
as if Lewis and Clark were
still planning to meet near
water and would never stop.

And the thin orange slashes
on your throat will always
be proof. No matter how
the world may crowd toward
the hybrid of loss
they will be there.

Your gill covers burn crimson
toward purple as you flaunt
the purity of the West
spilling east from the divide
and a world
lost in you.

Brook
You live hard
in the backwaters and eddies
where your flesh turns
like coal into diamond
and you burn orange
up the flare of your fins
for your own reason.

The tracks stunning your
back into dark marble
are where we would go in
sleep if dream were water.
Since it’s not we rely on
you to show us the way east.

When you find size
in still waters, four pounds
draped over a purist’s hand,
it leaves no choice:
Plato was wrong.
All of the West was wrong.
this living shadow burns,
has weight.

Brown
You have come a
long way—and stayed.
Still you seem willing to put
up with us.

When we take your water away,
slow it down,
turn it warm,
your jaw gets more determined
with each fall spawning—
and you grow.

We call you brown and your
red spots defy us, floating
on brown glowing gold
turning purple or turquoise
when you flop on the grass.

Your teeth turn inward
sharp down your throat
so nothing you catch
can escape you.

Rainbow
Running against the
line you are the
promise. Where the
brown dives, you leap.
And there in the sun,
above the circle of
your entrance into
this world,
you let us know for
one instant what
you know. And there
is nothing in
the color of sun through
water that could spell
promise so clearly.

On shore your colors
go quickest of all.
Unless we lose you now
we will lose you always.