Friday, November 16, 2007

A Poem Written This Evening

It is not often that I write poetry that I am willing to share. I can be shy about the results. Sitting later than usual at my office desk, I have woven some words -- again and again -- to catch some of the flavor of this peaceful evening. The photograph is one I took a month ago inside the writing cabin of American naturalist Edwin Way Teale. No, the window in this photograph does not look onto the night, but the desk is wooden.

Safe evenings, true nights,
The syllables of the heart,
A lit lamp on a wooden table,
Windows onto the night.

Windows into a heart,
An evening safe for the pen and paper,
The syllables of the night,
A table lit by a wooden lamp.

The wooden syllables of the table,
The evening paper, the nighttime lamp,
A pen lit by the heart,
True windows, safe nights.

Lamp onto the heart,
A table without pen or paper,
Safe syllables, true nights,
Wooden window open --

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poet,

Thank you for your lines...I like "The wooden syllables of the table." It is so easy to imagine that a writing desk would absorb some of the--? psyche, spirit, contemplation? of the writer over time. Perhaps, in fact, the words and the writer never really leave..but leave their mark in various ways. Old buildings are like that, too, aren't they? The floors of my beloved school in LA are grooved and sloped from almost two centuries of students never really leaving...there are reminders everywhere for those who have the eye and the "absorbent feel" for noticing. Oh this gets me thinking about so many things... I could fill pages and not just a comment box! Thanks for sparking it.

I give great thanks this season for you and Marcus. God bless your table this Thursday and your lives always.

peace, friend.

John said...

You consistently help me trust my words, friend. You know how to read them and you try again and again to name their effect. What better reader could a writer want?

Enjoy the wide horizons of this coming Thanksgiving Day, the dreams, the steady wonder of your life.

Thank you!