Month: December 2015

The Snow Man

BY WALLACE STEVENS

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Forest Prayer

for JR

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at the grove’s edge

you meet them all, each one

dripping with hurt, steel eyed

dusted and luminous

 

moss trodden and lichen lipped

you go on, forgiving and seeking forgiveness.

looking back, you see that

none follow and

alone you go,

liminal to the margin

 

at the dipping point

each river-pool clears of its whispering ghosts

your trinkets, tokens, icons of memory

are placed in offering as expiation

 

each gesture a steady movement

each step up the mountain, lighter still

you are deep prayer moving steadily

toward foresight,  toward reclamation, toward flight

 

ascendant

you are golden haired

 

loved by the gods

you are sweet-breathed

 

as friend, father, brother, as joy-bringer

you are seminal and unbound

the wing of forgiveness

lifting toward light

 

 

MChallis © 2015

Deeper

for Dennis Lee

By the river
at night

burned stubble
of sugar cane
feathers the air with a lick of caramel

a quiet earth underscores
crocus and chorusing cricket
as curlew weep their distant sonorous calls

fingering the stillness
we pluck a string of starlight

to pull a gentle breeze closer
we tug on orbiting moons

in the darkness of deep
we become motionless
intent to watch worlds
and enter the symphony

MChallis @ 2015