sara Etgen-Baker Poet Blank verse

Notes About The Poem

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Timber, Nail, and Stone (Poetry Wheel Challenge)

The covered bridge  stood over swollen water,
its weathered beams gone nearly black with rain.

All afternoon the storm  had gathered force,
unraveling crimson  leaves from maple limbs
and hurling them downstream like scattered sparks.

I stopped before the threshold of the span.
The river bellowed through its narrow banks.
Wind drove the rain in hard slant sheets of gray.
The bridge  appeared less certain than the flood.

Yet someone built it for a night like this.
Someone had trusted timber, nail, and stone
to hold against the temper of the sky.

That thought became a lantern in my chest.
I stepped beneath the roof and felt it rise~
not wood alone, but every hand that shaped
its arch above the water's restless throat.

Around me autumn  surrendered branch by branch.
Behind me lay the shore I knew too well.
Before me waited mist and hidden fields.

The storm  still spoke, but no longer as threat.
Its voice had changed into a rough instruction~
the heart is not made brave by standing still.

By midstream, dusk had settled on the world.
The crimson  leaves kept passing underneath.
The river carried all it could away.
The bridge, despite the weather, held its course.

And when I crossed, the storm  remained the storm ,
yet something in me found a way to rise.

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Natasha L Scragg October 7, 2026 at 12:12 PM Love the build up to courage through your poem Sara, from considering the materials and the storm itself. Not that the storm changed, but something inside had. Such depth to the ending. We can't control what goes on outside, but we can change our own perspective on the storm. Literal or symbolic. Adding this to faves 😊

Alison A Smith October 5, 2026 at 9:36 PM The unrhymed lines and varied stanza lengths give the poem a steady yet flexible movement, beautifully suited to the crossing. Vivid storm imagery frames a quiet inward change, while “every hand that shaped” the bridge brings human trust and craftsmanship into the speaker’s discovery of courage. The ending is especially moving: the storm need not change for the speaker to rise.