As night falls, soft and heavy, The stars gather like stories told, Whispering secrets to the moon: Grains of time slipping through our fingers. In this moment, wrapped in silence, Nature expands like an unbroken promise, Holding me close, through layers of love and loss, Until the dawn, when I rise anew, Quickened by the light that spills on ground, Breath and earth, woven as one, Connected in the fabric of existence, Each morning as fragile and fierce— A landscape waiting to burst forth.

— “Starlight and Solitude”

• James Wright