SHAPE FOR WORDS

Sandhill crane or great blue heron? 
It launches itself and flings into my breath,
feet from me, taking itself above, beyond 
a birch, a maple, an oak, lost from sight, 
except for words. Old poems, seemingly 
going anywhere, or lost to indifference 
inside a body, preventing me from new 
heights. But that bird is a glory moment: 
like character, as sad as I am, but still 
a standout—giving in to being more 
than what we have hope for. It will fly 
toward me again, come back, launch, 
or leave above the branches of crown 
maple—wind-whipped, nearly pulled 
apart. But finding its shape again.  

Jan Wiezorek (he/him) writes from Harbor Country of rural Michigan and is author of the poetic chapbooks Beseech (Bottlecap Press, 2026), Forests of Woundedness (Seven Kitchens Press, 2026), and Prayer’s Prairie(Michigan Writers Chapbook Poetry Prize, 2025). His work, appearing in The London Magazine and Dunes Review, is forthcoming in The MacGuffin. Visit him at janwiezorek.substack.com.