sara

When green buds hang in the elm like dust

And sprinkle the lime like rain, 

Forth I wander, forth I must, 

And drink of life again. 

A sudden gust of wind.

Branches brushing against each other—pine, beech.

A fiberglass hull tapping against the dock.

A sudden chill.

The smell of smoke, woodstove fires.

A light going out.

And we will sit upon the Rocks, 

Seeing the Shepherds feed their flocks, 

By shallow Rivers to whose falls 

Melodious birds sing Madrigals.

carefully folded, swooned, postpartum

posthaste—

my letter to you, I gave—

curious, you said uncanny you

said the color of my eyes in this light

is a different shade of green said

I loved a girl

when I was a girl,

before I knew desire

could be used against me.

I know

Not these my hands

And yet I think there was

A woman like me once had hands

Like these.

Water, is taught by thirst.

Land - by the Oceans passed.

Transport - by throe -

Peace - by its battles told-

Had I not seen the Sun

I could have borne the shade

But Light a newer Wilderness

My Wilderness has made-

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more. 

    Men were deceivers ever, 

One foot in sea, and one on shore, 

    To one thing constant never.

The Grass so little has to do-

A Sphere of simple Green -

With only Butterflies to brood

And Bees to entertain-

spilling water from my back,

you call and i come.

that exhausted walk to reach you

breathless and no i didn’t run

So bashful when I spied her!

So pretty - so ashamed!

So hidden in her leaflets

Lest anybody find -

A little Road - not made of Man-

Enabled of the Eye-

Accessible to Thill of Bee-

Or Cart of Butterfly-

Garlands for Queens, may be -

Laurels - for rare degree

Of soul or sword.

Ah - but rememberIng me -

Ah - but remembering thee -

"Love seeketh not itself to please, 

Nor for itself hath any care, 

But for another gives its ease, 

And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair." 

April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.