Honor Moore, “Aubade”

The south wind is presented as an eagle
no matter what she does to draw him
as heated sky, open daisy, an elm
where there are no elms.

She wears night gloves to water flowers
that bloom only in the dark, whose
scent rifles her sleep, whose petals close
at the hint of light.

At his gold cry, the rooster’s crown
flares: voluminous horizon
window opening, a parade of dead soliders.
This is what she’d dreamed
before waking, before his feet undid
her bashfulness and day opened like an egg.

From Red Shoes, the third collection of poems from Honor Moore, published last summer. A memoir, The Bishop’s Daughter, will be published later this year.

2 April 2006 | poetry |

Gary Snyder, “Cold Mountain Poem (#12)”

In my first thirty years of life
I roamed hundreds and thousands of miles.
Walked by rivers through deep green grass
Entered cities of boiling red dust.
Tried drugs, but couldn’t make Immortal;
Read books and wrote poems on history.
Today I’m back at Cold Mountain:
I’ll sleep by the creek and purify my ears.

From Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems.

Gary Snyder has been called one of the 20th century’s great nature poets, and is also noted for his connection to the Beats. Read “The Circumambulation of Mt. Tamalpais” and a slew of other poems, and here’s another good starting reference.

27 April 2004 | poetry |