By Dave Read, Lenox, MA, July 22, 2026 – Every poem I’ve composed has had a unique gestation – some few arrive fully mature and presentable while most make a big noise at first but require many revisions before they’re presentable. Below is a poem that arrived upside-down, with the title and concluding line needing to be reversed!
During a family gathering last year at a cottage on Lake Ontario near hometown Oswego, NY, I sketched out a poem, then recited it to my nephew Matthew, who was learning what can be done with his new GoPro.
Soon enough, I realized that the poem would serve as an apt introduction to a series of poems called Blue Ontario Read Oswego. That’s when I knew the title of the poem had to be Introibo Ad Altare Dei, “I shall go to the altar of God,” which I recited many times as an altar boy. What is poetry, after all, but acknowledgment of the sanctity of life, with or without ancient incantations, rites, and rituals?
A couple months ago, the poem was published in a new magazine in San Francisco that had solicited material for a themed issue named Healing Waters. Here is the final version of the poem born upside-down:
Introibo Ad Altare Dei
At dawn,
a gray ceiling breaks
over Lake Ontario’s shore
and shows a myriad of clouds,
white as swans,
which part and play themselves out
to display blue
as it becomes blue and bluer still,
while below, water ripples
just beneath
the furled feet of surface skimming birds.
The ripples rise –
water rises high enough to fall
then splash
and bless
the sanctuary of the shore.
Dave Read
Healing Waters is available in print for $15 + shipping, or as an online flip-book for $5.