Sunday, October 16, 2011

Equinox


Without a structure to drape against the days, I've been thinking a lot about weather and the darkness of mornings and the way the air is fidgety one minute and drowsy-quiet the next. Edging toward Samhain, the periphery where autumn and winter meet, a compromise.

Came across this poem (thanks to Ms. Jen Spearie) and it spoke to me:


At the Equinox

by Arthur Sze


The tide ebbs and reveals orange and purple sea stars.

I have no theory of radiance,


but after rain evaporates

off pine needles, the needles glisten.


In the courtyard, we spot the rising shell of a moon,

and, at the equinox, bathe in its gleam.


Using all the tides of starlight,

we find

vicissitude is our charm.


On the mud flats off Homer,

I catch the tremor when waves start to slide back in;


and, from Roanoke, you carry

the leafing jade smoke of willows.


Looping out into the world, we thread

and return. The lapping waves


cover an expanse of mussels clustered on rocks;

and, giving shape to what is unspoken,


forsythia buds and blooms in our arms.



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