I've been reading Come Together: Imagine Peace, an anthology edited by Philip Metres, Ann Smith, and Larry Smith. As with Against Forgetting, I've filled my copy with place-markers. Here's one I marked:
All the Way Up
by Lisa Rosen
flowers float like pale stars
in the grass, and at the top
of the hill there’s a plank
of wood hanging from an oak.
I lift myself into its level lap,
a pendulous Sabbath where
branches curve and meet,
framing landscapes.
Blow sweet shadows,
there’s no holding back
the light, it curls
through the leaves
and snapping grasses. It pads
along Queen Anne’s lace.
Someone with faith in roots
and a weathered limb,
cut, carried, measured and
slipped sleeves of rubber
over rope, knotted it so I’m swinging
between hayfield and cloud.
Someone I will never know
is blessing me.
~~~~~~~~~~
Dori Reads has our Poetry Friday round-up this week.
9 comments:
What a beautiful poem, Tabatha. I love the feel of "Blow, sweet shadows." One of my earliest poetry memories is reading Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Swing." This poem takes me back there.
There is that sense of quiet, and yes, pale stars as I read through the poem. My favorite lines are:
Blow sweet shadows,
there’s no holding back
the light, it curls
through the leaves
and snapping grasses.
- only a poet can twist and turn these words so that it crackles and crunches - like 'snapping grasses.' Thank you for sharing this. Much needed today.
It's really a beautiful adult memory of swinging. I love "it curls through the leaves and snapping grasses" and so much more. As a teacher, I would love to use this to lift the level of observation of something in childhood for my students. I can see why you must be marking so many poems. Thank you!
"flowers float like pale stars
in the grass"
That line has me fixated - just perfect. We just unpacked MMarie Howe's "The Copper Beech" in our poetry class this week - I think I will pair these two poems next year.
"Someone I will never know
is blessing me."
So lovely and definitely peaceful. Thanks for sharing this one!
Oh, so beautiful. I love this line.
a pendulous Sabbath where
branches curve and meet,
Wouldn't I love to sit here and greet the daylight!
Yesterday I got to mess around exercising, jumping rope and shooting baskets in the gym at the health club. It was aquatic bootcamp on land because of thunderstorms, but really, for me, it was a chance to PLAY like a child. The only thing that could have made it better would have been a chance to swing on this swing!
What a beautiful poem - and a thoughtful tribute to so many "Someones" in our lives. Thank you for sharing.
This is lovely...I especially like how soft the poem feels even though there are lots of hard endings in the words, especially that first stanza. Cool effect!
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