By the Moonlit Water Where the Dombiki Sing

—An In-titled Poem[1].  

Elms looming ghostly
at the trail’s stark edge;
the bower grows balmier
in midnight’s mist;
and as a moonbeam
alights on a toadstool
newly bloating
in the dew-soaked loam,
i wend my way down
into that honey-dank glade
where, on a bygone night,
time’s stealing-by steered
the moon in its sky,
while we held one another
and together we listened
to the dombiki sing…
i learned, in that moment—
whether one wooed one,
or bolder twos wooed threes
with loose-stringed twangs
that mingled into woodsy
rhymes and harmonies—
there was no way
better to be this we together
than beside the moonlit water
teeming with Northern Greens,
swathed in dombiki-ardor’s song…
and i gained a notion keener
that, too soon, i’d need to know:

Neither is there any better way
to be alone—

[1] The “In-titled Poem,” the author’s invented poetry form, is composed exclusively of the letters appearing in its title, with no letter occurring within any single word in the poem more times than it does in its title.  

Stephanie L. Harper is a neurodivergent poet, mother, and transplant from Oregon now living in Indiana with the world's most adorable husband and cat. In a former life, she earned her BA in English & German from Grinnell College, IA, and MA in German from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. More recently, she homeschooled and raised her extraordinary children to adulthood in Oregon, and completed her MFA in Poetry at Butler University in Indianapolis, IN. Her poems appear in Crab Creek Review, The Dodge, The Iowa Review, The Night Heron Barks, Pleiades, Salamander Magazine, Taos Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere.

Published April 15 2025