Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Pausing For Poetry

I heard this poem yesterday morning on The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor on NPR while I was standing in my bathroom applying blush to my cheeks in an effort to brighten up my face from it's winter pallor. The words read in Garrison's lilting voice made me feel so hopeful for the newness of spring that I want to share it with my dear, discerning readers.


Revival
by Luci Shaw
I am beginning to
to anticipate a thaw. Early mornings
the earth, old unbeliever, is still crusted with frost
where the moles have nosed up their
cold castings, and the ground cover
in shadow under the cedars hasn't softened
for months, fogs layering their slow, complicated ice
around foliage and stem
night by night,
but as the light lengthens, preacher
of good news, evangelizing leaves and branches,
his large gestures beckon green
out of gray. Pinpricks of coral bursting
from the cotoneasters. A single bee
finding the white heather. Eager lemon-yellow
aconites glowing, low to the ground like
little uplifted faces. A crocus shooting up
a purple hand here, there, as I stand
on my doorstep, my own face drinking in heat
and light like a bud welcoming resurrection,
and my hand up, too, ready to sign on
for conversion.

1 comment:

  1. I could almost hear his voice as I read that poem! It is lovely.

    ReplyDelete