Hi Sue,
sometimes a poem works its magic, captivates, at a first reading - and this
is one of them. I'd an intuitive "yes" I was wanting to say as soon as I got
to the end of the last line.
An almost quibble could be the line:
"almost traceless, no more than"
when I want to put the word "than" on the next line - so each and every line
of the poem says something in itself as well as contributing to the whole.
But I know I read a lot of poems (particularly from the US) where there is
less appreciation of the autonomy of each and every line. (I know in formal
poems the rhyme and/or the metrical measures of lines can mean such a
mid-phrase break can and does happen - but this seems to be a poem that's
created its own shape, its own form, as it's been written.)
The line "the coming spring no heart lets go" has an enigmatic, very poetic,
feel to it... and I'm not sure what it means as yet (I'll probably take it
with me, in the back of my mind, for a day or too and see if it reveals
meanings in the same way the rest of the lines do).
But it's a canny poem. One that is surprising in the heat of (our northern
hemishere's) summer!
Bob
>From: Sue Scalf <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: New: Moss on the North Side
>Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 19:34:48 EDT
>
>Moss on the North Side
>
>
>As quietly as snow in deep woods
>when a laden branch lets go,
>and layer upon layer shifts down
>until at last a rising wind
>lifts the sifted flakes;
>
>as quietly as moonlight
>tips with midnight blue
>the frost-encrusted limbs
>of fir and spruce,
>so does love leave,
>
>almost traceless, no more than
>a small print filling with snow.
>Were there deer? Did one step here?
>And was there someone who called
>my name, touched me as I dreamed?
>
>Under snow, a green whorl moves,
>the coming spring no heart lets go,
>like a fawn that cries for its mother,
>out of view, moss on the north side
>where she feeds.
>
>Sue Scalf
>
>http://members.aol.com/PoetScalf
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