Summer

“Spring Snow” by Ruth Stone

 

Spring Snow (In the Next Galaxy, Copper Canyon Press, 2002)

Rain of remembering;
late snow turning to rain.
Then in the cold house,
alone in bed,
the soft stutter on the roof,
random phrases; your voice,
only your voice. How can
it be that voice that touched
me everywhere?
And what you said,
if only I could hear it again
in its intensity.
Essence distilled
in the moment of waking,
the delicate mold and odors
of the breaking apart of winter,
in the soft snow that comes
between the past and the chill
distillation, the whisper of air
split between the perfume
of melting crystals; the clasp
and letting go.

 

http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2004/jul/ruthstone/

Rainer Maria Rilke

“Yes–the springtimes needed you. 

Often a star was waiting for you to notice it.

A wave rolled toward you out of the distant past,

or as you walked under an open window,

a violin yielded itself to your hearing.

All this was mission.

But could you accomplish it?

Weren’t you always distracted by expectation,

as if every event announced a beloved?” 

from Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke,

translated by Stephen Mitchell

Brown County

My Little Turtle Dove

“The Mermaid”

Poetry was Spoken Here…

“Highway”

“Highway” by Faiz Ahmed Faiz

A despondent highway is stretched,

its eyes set on the far horizon

On the cold dirt of its bosom,

its grayish beauty spread

As if some saddened woman

in her lonely abode, lost in thought.

In contemplation of union with her Beloved

every pore sore, limbs limp with exhaustion.

Aging

“The flower that you hold in your hands was born today and already it is as old
as you are.”  ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by
W.S. Merwin

Art is Contemplation

“Art is contemplation.  It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into

nature and which there divines the spirit of which nature herself is animated.”

– Auguste Rodin