Issue 2. August 2026. Jessica Cohn

Sun shines as though a distant, cooling ember.
Slight wind blows to catch the treetops.
Glints the window, where I stand as witness
as the lone hummingbird arrives in early light.

So dulled by mist, the iridescence blinkers green.
By contrast, the reddened throat stretches and glows.
I grow glad, so glad for having filled the feeder
once again, against odds, against all reason.

The hummingbirds have gone south in season.
Yet sip and sip again, this straggler
takes sustenance up and inward while seated on air.

Its wings, readjusting the trajectory of all futures
from here in my backyard
of no renown.

The hobnail feeder, an inverted vase.
The metal around the glass, ringed
with small metal flowers. Everything
rings around all ringing as if by design.

Even the gray and cold seem to
encircle some warmth to come,
when hummingbirds charm. And
I wonder: What feeds beauty?

The red flash of light through glass.

The emptiness from which the prophet draws.

The practice of boiling sugar to feed the wild.

The showing up.

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Jessica Cohn

Jessica Cohn, born in Michigan, started a poetry practice after moving to California’s Central Coast. Gratitude Diary, the first poetry collection from this long-time nonfiction writer, was named Great Northwest Book Festival winner for the genre in 2025. For more background, please visit jessicacohn.net.

Editorial Note

While a poem can conjure up specific imagery, layers of meaning could await uncovering. Such exploration can reveal broad contexts while leaving the core mysteries intact. This is partly because interpretations are shaped by a reader’s own sensitivity, cultural background, and philosophy. Poetry is perhaps a creative riddle regardless.

Nevertheless, there are occasions when specific motifs or messaging stands out like a strong flavor filling a space, emitting various fragrances and scents. Beyond the spiritual connections between the hummingbird and the prophet, this poem reflects unexpected moments of revelation and the interconnectedness of beings in a cosmic design. It suggests an emptying of the mind and a widening of the heart to enable an opening to higher consciousness, and the discovery of beauty in the ordinariness of life. As has been said, “There is a certain state of Yogic consciousness in which all things become beautiful to the eye of the seer, simply because they spiritually are — because they are a rendering in line and form of the quality and force of existence, of the consciousness, of the Ananda that rules the worlds, — of the hidden Divine.”