[Poetry] "Inland, Walking South"

[edenfalling]

In honor of National Poetry Month (speaking of which, why is there not an international poetry month? inquiring minds want to know!), I am going to inflict one of my old poems on you. *grin*

I wrote this in summer of 2001, after taking a walk on Star Island.

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Inland, Walking South

This is the trees' graveyard,
here along the grassy path, lined by mounds
and hollows and thin, many-trunked birches,
ghostly in the leaf-green light.

Fifty years ago and more,
storms toppled the cathedral pines;
nothing has replaced them but grass
and silence.

Dry limbs and trunks, bones of birches
grown and fallen since the storm,
lie broken beneath the mounds;
their tendons line the path.

In the west, clouds gather; sunlight
slants through the leaves in quick absolution;
ghosts of birches shiver as the wind
shifts north.

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In other news, I definitely overdid it yesterday at work -- my cold struck back with a vengeance overnight. *sigh* But I seem to be getting moderately better, and tomorrow is a shorter shift (7 hours vs. 9 hours) which I can probably cut down even more (leaving at 5:30pm is a long and honorable tradition), so hopefully I won't relapse again.

*scuttles off to try writing "Secrets"*

Comments

[rianax.livejournal.com]

*FALLS OVER DEAD*

Pretty so pretty and reminds me oddly of Audre Lorde.

[edenfalling]

Thank you so much! This has always been one of my favorites of the few poems I've managed to write over the years -- I think it's because the original image/experience I was trying to capture was so striking, and I kept tinkering until I felt I was doing it a shadow of justice.

[rianax.livejournal.com]

It is so lovely.