Near Stonehenge


I once stood in a circle of blue stones.
White sheep grazed in the grass between the stones.

Barns, houses, and a church all built of stone.
What secrets lie beneath a field of stones.

Into the Avon the children cast smooth stones.
Water’s music moved over the stones.

A path we took led us among white stones.
Who cleared the land and stacked those walls of stone?

Night in the sky’s hand, the moon was a stone.
I wondered how men carried those great stones.

My love has been keystone and cornerstone.
He brought me beads of garnet, my birthstone.


Beth Paulson lives in Ouray County, Colorado where she leads the Poetica Workshop and co-directs the Open Bard Literary Series.  She taught English at California State University Los Angeles for 22 years.  Her poems have been widely published in national journals and anthologies and have four times been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. Beth’s fifth book, Immensity, was published in 2016 by Kelsay Books. In May 2019 Beth was appointed the first Poet Laureate of Ouray County.