Hi Sue,
Like this very much. The title fits the poem wondrfully too. I wonder if you
need the "walkers" at all. Maybe you need to keep everything vague and not
ground the poem with the Ramblers Association.
bw
James
>From: Sue Scalf <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: for your consideration: Processional in Gray
>Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2002 11:07:41 EST
>
>Processional in Gray
>
>On the banks of the river of Time the sad procession of
> human generations is marching slowly to
>the grave. . . Bertrand Russell
>
>
>Barely dawn, and down
>by the river they are shuffling,
>leaving no footprints.
>
>They move like the fog that winds
>between trees and slips through inlets
>touching moss and cypress stump.
>
>They are whispering as they walk, talking
>to each other, their voices weightless
>as a communion wafer on the tongue.
>
>Above their heads, a bird's bright song
>and a limb silvered by sun, the river
>a dazzle of light, a mirror of sky
>
>broken and alive. Cascades
>of laughter in small waves lapping,
>our voices from afar call, "Remember!"
>
>But the walkers do not hear.
>Nothing we say will matter.
>Nothing we do. Their eyes are set
>
>toward the grave, toward the deep earth,
>grains of stone. The billows of storm
>and lung are still. Their trade is bone.
>
>In gray shadows they are walking,
>complete and whole,
>done with remembering.
>
>Sue Scalf
>http://www.members.aol.com/poetscalf
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