Between permission and obligation what light gets in is sifted fine. A deep separateness blesses the evergreens, ashamed of nothing. Hardly a day goes by. The long unlikelihood suffusing all things becomes, if left alone, the same as loneliness. For instance the kindling you raked into heaps by the chopping block, the rubberbands you left on doorknobs: little miracles of sadness, the order things are in, a shame. I never asked for choices or desire. I never would have turned. I'd harvest snow to live on like the timber does. Days would go by, restrained. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONTRA MORTEM: THE WATER by HAYDEN CARRUTH HEGIRA by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON I WANT TO LIVE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON MA LADY'S LIPS AM LIKE DE HONEY (NEGRO LOVE SONG) by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON TO A LADY WHO HAD OFFERED HIM A WREATH OF LAUREL by GEORGE SANTAYANA BUCOLIC COMEDY: WHY by EDITH SITWELL |