snow snow snow

my sister came in from the tundra
murmuring a man's name & smiling at Death.
we laid her by the fire. My father cut
off her frozen boots
but
she wandered far in her mind.
A clear coldness was in her face.
My mother did not cry.
The eagle must fly or must fall - such is the way of it!
I have never seen my sister so beautiful
or so strange. Her blue eyes showed a winding path
through the heart of another,
& lostness.
she had lost the path & could not track it through the winter snow.

I do not think my brothers understand
why ice crystals remain all over me -
and I do not walk with them
over the tundra.

you say your love is free
wind on the sea
a new galaxy
an ocean
a bird
yet,
i hear
just a word.

you call your love strong
to right every wrong
some mystical song
a forest,
a sword
yet
i doubt you, Lord.

Make the waves to rise in me.
Make the stars to shine in me.
Make the eagle fly in me.
Make the song to sing in me.
Make the trees to grow in me.
Make the warrior fight in me.

You made Grace real,
permanent seal,
a power to heal
a gift
from your Son,
so
the work is begun.

. . .learn it. They must learn to love. - german poet Rainier rilke

“New Love”

I am telling my hands
not to blossom into roses

I am telling my feet
not to turn into birds
and fly over rooftops

and I am putting a hat on my head
so the flaming meteors
in my hair
will hardly show

- Eve Merriam, from Fresh Paint (1986)


so,
i knew about
the blossoming roses,
& the birds over rooftops,
secrets & meteors & flame
but
nobody mentioned the clarity
of moral purpose
or the constant singing that fills my house.

A Shaft of Sunlight

Three deer in a western cornfield
appear - my glance out the window turns into a poem
and i forget to curve. The craterous pot-holes of Telegraph Springs Road
snicker as my poor tires scrabble along, my car
a silver rag on a dirty washboard.
I down-shift absently, still trapped in
a shaft of sunlight,
breathing softly & flicking my white-tail.

Driving in November can be hazardous if you have eyes.