Jane Kenyon: Insomnia

Insomnia

The almost disturbing scent

of peonies presses through the screens,

and I know without looking how

those heavy white heads lean down

under the moon’s light. A cricket chafes

and pauses, chafes and pauses,

as if distracted or preoccupied.

When I open my eyes to document

my sleeplessness by the clock, a point

of greenish light pulses near the ceiling.

A firefly… In childhood I ran out

at dusk, a jar in one hand, lid

pierced with airholes in the other,

getting soaked to the knees

in the long wet grass.

The light moves unsteadily, like someone

whose balance is uncertain after traveling

many hours, coming a long way.

Get up. Get up and let it out.

But I leave it hovering overhead, in case

it’s my father, come back from the dead

to ask, “Why are you still awake? You can

put grass in their jar in the morning,”

                                          Jane Kenyon

Kenyon, Jane. “Insomnia.” Otherwise: New and Selected Poems. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Greywolf Press, 1996. p.138.

Gary Snyder: Surrounded By Wild Turkeys

Surrounded By Wild Turkeys

Little calls as they pass

through dry forbs and grasses

Under blue oak and gray digger pine

In the warm afternoon of the forest/fire haze;

Twenty or more, long/legged birds

all alike.

So are we, in our soft calling,

passing on through.

Our young, which trail after,

Look just like us.

                                   Gary Snyder

Hass, Robert., ed., “Surrounded By Wild Turkeys”. Poet’s Choice: Poems for Everyday Life. Hopewell, New Jersey, Ecco Press: 1998. p.39.

Haiku: Basho and Issa

A bee

staggers out

of the peony.

               Basho

Mosquito at my ear---

does it think

I’m deaf?
                       Issa

Even with insects

Some can sing,

some can’t.

                 Issa

Hass, Robert., ed. Poet’s Choice: Poems for Everyday Life. Hopewell, New Jersey, Ecco Press: 1998. p.59.

Wendell Berry - Woods

                 Woods

I part the out thrusting branches

and come in beneath

the blessed and the blessing trees.

Though I am silent

there is singing around me.

Though I am dark

there is vision around me.

Though I am heavy

there is flight around me.

         

                          Wendell Berry

Berry, Wendell. "Woods.". Collected Poems 1957 - 1982. New York: North Point Press, 1964. p. 205.

Wendell Berry - The Lilies

                                                             Jane Meyler

                   The Lilies

Hunting them, a man must sweat, bear

the whine of a mosquito in his ear,

grow thirsty, tired, despair perhaps

of ever finding them, walk a long way.

He must give himself over to chance,

for they live beyond prediction.

He must give himself over to patience,

for they live beyond will. He must be led

along the hill as by a prayer.

If he finds them anywhere, he will find

a few, paired on their stalks,

at ease in the air as souls in bliss.

I found them here at first without hunting,

by grace, as all beauties are first found.

I have hunted and not found them here.

Found, unfound, they breathe their light

into the mind, year after year.

                                             Wendell Berry

Berry, Wendell. "The Lilies.". Collected Poems 1957 - 1982. New York: North Point Press, 1964. p. 205.