Inversnaid— Gerard Manley HopkinsThis darksome burn, horseback brown,His rollrock highroad roaring down,In coop and in comb the fleece of his foamFlutes and low to the lake falls home. A windpuff-bonnet of fawn-frothTurns and twindles over the brothOf a pool so pitchblack, fell-frowning,It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning. Degged with dew, dappled with dew,Are the … Read more
In a Dark Time— by Theodore RoethkeIn a dark time, the eye begins to see,I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;I hear my echo in the echoing wood–A lord of nature weeping to a tree.I live between the heron and the wren,Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den. What’s madness but nobility … Read more
Everywoman Her Own Theology— Alicia Ostriker I am nailing them up to the cathedral doorLike Martin Luther. Actually, no,I don’t want to resemble that Schmutzkopf(See Erik Erikson and N.O. BrownOn the Reformer’s anal aberrations,Not to mention his hatred of Jews and peasants),So I am thumbtacking these ninety-fiveTheses to the bulletin board in my kitchen. My … Read more
All Soul’s Nightby Loreena McKennitt Bonfires dot the rolling hillsidesFigures dance around and aroundTo drums that pulse out echoes of darknessMoving to the Pagan sound. Somewhere in a hidden memoryImages float before my eyesOf fragrant nights of straw and of bonfiresDancing ’till the next sunrise. (chorus:)I can see the lights in the distanceTrembling in the … Read more
If Death is Kind — Sara Teasdale Perhaps if Death is kind, and there can be returning, We will come back to earth some fragrant night, And take these lanes to find the sea, and bending Breathe the same honeysuckle, low and white. We will come down at night to these resounding beaches And the … Read more
Autumn, a Wood Path © Sanford Robinson GiffordAn Autumn Evening by Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874 – 1942)Dark hills against a hollow crocus skyScarfed with its crimson pennons, and belowThe dome of sunset long, hushed valleys lieCradling the twilight, where the lone winds blowAnd wake among the harps of leafless treesFantastic runes and mournful melodies. The … Read more
Autumn Song © Susan Tino SantilloSong for Autumnby Mary Oliver In the deep falldon’t you imagine the leaves think howcomfortable it will be to touchthe earth instead of thenothingness of air and the endlessfreshets of wind? And don’t you thinkthe trees themselves, especially those with mossy,warm caves, begin to think of the birds that will … Read more
Earth at Night – C. Mayhew & R. Simmon (NASA/GSFC), NOAA/NGDC, DMSP Nocturne— W.H.Auden Now through night’s caressing gripEarth and all her oceans slip,Capes of China slide awayFrom her fingers into dayAnd the Americas inclineCoasts towards her shadow line. Now the ragged vagrants creepInto crooked holes to sleep:Just and unjust, worst and best,Change their places … Read more
Enchanted Woods © Richie DeanBlack OaksMary Oliver Okay, not one can write a symphony, or a dictionary, or even a letter to an old friend, full of remembranceand comfort. Not one can manage a single sound though the blue jayscarp and whistle all day in the branches, withoutthe push of the wind. But to tell … Read more
Peace of Sonoma County © Dana HawleySeptemberHelen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885) The goldenrod is yellow;The corn is turning brown;The trees in apple orchardsWith fruit are bending down. The gentian’s bluest fringesAre curling in the sun;In dusty pods the milkweedIts hidden silk has spun. The sedges flaunt their harvest,In every meadow nook;And asters by the brook-sideMake asters … Read more