William Swarts
A Peach at Giverny
— For Susan
More than the beds
of many colored flowers, brushed dabs
from the gardener’s rainbow palette,
More than the rippling reflections
of the Japanese foot bridge arching
the isthmus between two ponds where
water lilies blossom, cups and saucers
drifting on a green tea sea,
I remember that peach I bought
from a roadside market stand
the day we biked to Giverny.
A sweet white peach,
sphere of sweet desire, round,
soft in my grasping hand.
William Swarts is the author of Strickland Plains and Other Poems (Black Buzzard Press, Austin, TX), whose title poem won First Prize in the Summer 2004 Litchfield Review Poetry Contest, and a chapbook, Treehouse of the Mind.” His work has appeared in more than 30 literary reviews and journals. He majored in English Literature at Brown University, received his law degree from University of Pennsylvania and practiced law in New York City and Paris, France. He studied with Bollingen Prize winner David Ignatow at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA Poetry Center in New York City. He lives in western North Carolina.