CLEAR NIGHT
By Charles Wright
Clear night, thumb-top of a moon, a back-lit sky.
Moon-fingers lay down their same routine
On the side deck and the threshold, the white keys and the black keys.
Bird hush and bird song. A cassia flower falls.
I want to be bruised by God.
I want to be strung up in a strong light and singled out.
I want to be stretched, like music wrung from a dropped seed.
I want to be entered and picked clean.
And the wind says “What?” to me.
And the castor beans, with their little earrings of death, say “What?” to me.
And the stars start out on their cold slide through the dark.
And the gears notch and the engines wheel.
Charles Wright, “Clear Night” from Country Music: Selected Early Poems.
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| Confederate Rose |
4 comments:
Your flowers are all so beautiful. It's looking pretty sad around here these days. :(
Thanks, Kelly. They’re almost gone now, but the Roses perk up around Fall. My Angel Trumpets bloomed early, then went kaput. My Datura Moonflowers are still putting out a few blooms. We still have butterflies munching on the weeds along the fence. LOL! xo
how i love this poem, know the strong need in this poem.
yes, the flowers were beautiful. here, the leaves are already gone but the winter berries are so abundant this year they are enough to stun.
i hope your pain (in all its manifestations) is bearable, marion. truly. i think of you and wish you well))
Thank you, Erin. I have so many amazing Canadian friends...you, the poet and 3 ladies who create beautiful, tiny Blythe doll clothes. They’re always inviting me to visit, but I laugh. Maybe one day we’ll all meet. As for the pain, it was better, then yesterday I stepped in a hole, fell and busted my butt. I bruised my ribs and knee, but I survived. I was walking the dog, rather, he was walking me. I dropped the leash, but he came right back and licked my face, bless his heart. I recall why I prefer cats to dogs. LOL! xo
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