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Echo After the Gods Left by Travis Park
When the mountains
lost their gods,
the echoes
kept reporting
for work.
They answered
every shout,
every axe,
every hymn,
though no one
waited anymore
to hear
who answered back.
By winter,
the shepherds
had forgotten
which voices
were theirs.
A child
called her own name
across the valley.
Three evenings later,
someone returned it,
older,
and carrying snow.
Bio
Travis Park is an Indiana poet and photographer whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in Modern Haiku, Presence, Ribbons, Wales Haiku Journal, McNeese Review, and other journals. His honors include multiple Poetry Society of Indiana awards.
Author's note
These poems grew out of my interest in what remains after myth has passed out of belief and into memory. I was interested in the way ancient stories can persist in landscapes, objects, and ordinary human experience even after their original worlds have disappeared.
