An Evening on the Drava River and Other Poems

By Zachary Isrow

An Evening on the Drava River

Drifting – on the water flows,
Pacing – walking along the banks,
Racing – the mind wanders,
On what does ponder?
What time is there to reflect?
There is nothing left to contemplate,
save the very condition of the soul.

Swans

Brilliantly emulating, majestically aesthetic.
The Swans sail away and bask in the twilight
that stretches its reach across the water, shimmering.
How far they have come, I do not know.
Where they are headed, is far more interesting, I am sure.
My curiosity strikes.

Passing Time/Next to You

Is it any wonder that I am here –
silent, deeply intertwined with the fleeting moment?

What more is needed, then merely to watch
as the faintest light becomes fainter yet across your face?

It is in these moments, in the passing time between breaths,
That I find myself as myself, in you, with you, next to you.

Chaotic Bursts

Silence – echoes of a distant past
The haunting traces of a single storm,
Born not from chaos, but from cosmic decay.
Energetic spirals – intensity builds.
Crushing, crashing, creative conjunction.
All that is all, has what has is,
And continues to have, having had all.
So pushing on, we carry a burden,
Lightened by an infinite laughter,
And weighted only by its multiplicity.

Zachary Isrow, PhD is Assistant Department Chair of Humanities at Beacon College. His academic work has been published in journals and his first book The Spectricity of Humanness (2022) is available through De Gruyter press. Creatively, he co-wrote the musical Raven’s Stars (Music/Lyrics/Script), which premiered in Chicago in March 2023.