Sunday, November 30, 2008

it was beginning winter

new ice, edge of the n. sask, nov. 28/08

dry seed-drops, banks of the n. sask, nov. 28/08

birch-curl-tendril, banks of the n. sask, nov. 28/08

5. “It was beginning winter”

It was beginning winter,
An in-between time,
The landscape still partly brown:
The bones of the weeds kept swinging in the wind,
Above the blue snow.

It was beginning winter,
The light moved slowly over the frozen field,
Over the dry seed-crowns,
The beautiful surviving bones
Swinging in the wind.

Light travelled over the wide field;
Stayed.
The weeds stopped swinging.
The mind moved, not alone,
Through the clear air, in the silence.

Was it light?
Was it light within?
Was it light within light?
Stillness becoming alive,
Yet still?

A lively understandable spirit
Once entertained you.
It will come again.
Be still.
Wait.


-- Theodore Roethke, ‘The Lost Son’

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