She lingered by the marble stair
till it was full night
and the dew had soaked her stockings
quite through.
Waiting for what?
As it turned out,
only to sit at her window later
watching the moon go down.
He said we would meet
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Monthly Archives: March 2016
The crows all night
(after Li Po)
And the crows
flew out of the storm
and took their places
among the branches;
and the sun
at the world’s edge
broke through the clouds;
and she paused at her loom,
the cawing of the crows reminding her
that she was alone,
the jaundiced light
reminding her how far behind
was her home by Qin River.
The mist-green thread she wove
had neither beginning nor end.
The crows called all night long
while the rain fell like her tears.
The fascination
The fascination of what’s difficult
Worked out all right for you, it seems, old man,
As when Blavatsky’s esoteric cult
Helped you parse George’s automatic hand–
And who would doubt that Truth herself was caught
Dumbfounded in your raveled Celtic knot?
The Swan
(after Ranier Maria Rilke)
Despite having so many things still left undone
(Important things, things you were meant to do)
You spent the hour observing swans.
Swans waddle; are awkward; you hadn’t known. One—ungainly thing—
You watched slowly approach the verge, like one would who
Faced death by drowning—till, resigned to sink,
It pitched into the pool at last
With an undignified, un-swan-like splash.
Then bore up, unsurprisingly, upon the waves.
The water endless came—oh, but the swan
Glided, glided, glided on and on
As if it were no miracle it had been saved.
Homecoming
Darkness, did you forget my name?
I’ve been out taking the air,
Roaming all day on the bright mountainside,
But Darkness, you know me!
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