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This week’s poem, by Bill Schulz, is a love poem that feels like both a landscape painting and a prayer. I love this poem’s gentle sequence of images and its slow, spacious unfolding, like a deep and nourishing breath. 

Born and raised in Portland, Maine, Bill Schulz is a poet, painter and the author of Dog or Wolf (2022, Nine Mile Press) and Another Psalm (2024, Kelsay Books). His work has appeared in literary/arts journals including Seneca Review, Maine Arts Journal, Nine Mile, and elsewhere. He is the founder and former editor of Hole in the Head Review, and he lives in Windham with his wife, Autumn, and three interesting cats.

Poets, please note that submissions to Deep Water are open now and through the end of the year. Deep Water is especially eager to share poems by Black writers, writers of color, indigenous writers, LGBTQ+ writers, and other underrepresented voices. You’ll find a link to submit in the credits below.

for Autumn

clouds lift
and settle

mist painting
orchards

and sheep warm
under barely

green
apple trees

hungry
when you kneel

drawn to
the grace

in your
open hands

– Bill Schulz

Megan Grumbling is a poet and writer who lives in Portland. DEEP WATER: Maine Poems is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. “Shaker Village,” ©2022 by Bill Schulz. Reprinted from Dog or Wolf (Nine Mile Press), it appears by permission of the author. Submissions to Deep Water are open now and through the end of the year. For more information, go to mainewriters.org/deep-water.