Ursula Shepherd lives in Ashland, Oregon. She is the author of a book, Nature Notes: A Notebook Companion for the Season, and several essays. She only recently returned to writing poetry. Her poetry has appeared in, among others, Unbroken, Minnow, Grim and Gilded, Ekphrastic Review, and The Orchards.
You will not
come again along
the snowy path
that is my life
nor up
the rocky climb
amid the trees.
You will not stop
by the hoar-lit pine
that shelters me
nor pass beneath
those branches
that I love.
I shall not hear again
the crunch of ice
beneath your feet
nor see your wisp
of breath upon
the winter wind.
No, you have gone
along another way
and will not come again.