I tend to agree with Sheila, Max: the actual seen being the most important aspect...
Also, note that here in what should be Spring, we get the reflections off the piles of snow still surrounding the house...
Doug
On 2013-04-09, at 5:57 PM, Sheila Murphy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi, Max,
>
> I find myself wanting this poem to begin with "It was the light . . ."
> (fifth stanza) and then going forward. Eliminating the first four.
>
> So much to like in this poem. Sheila
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 4:52 PM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Autumn Night
>>
>> At an uncertain
>> well-past-midnight hour,
>> body stirred, person
>>
>> in it, of long
>> association,
>> stumbled from
>>
>> warm bed and carpet
>> to cool-under-foot
>> tiles of a moist bathroom.
>>
>> Face, avoid the mirror.
>> Feet, shamble
>> past the window.
>>
>> It was the light
>> from the night sky,
>> lacking moon,
>>
>> lacking cloud,
>> lacking wind,
>> gentle, steady,
>>
>> circumambient -
>> foreshadowing
>> lawn-wide dew
>>
>> or a first frost,
>> that redeemed
>> the occasion.
>>
>> Out there, down there,
>> morning would show
>> more new mushrooms
>>
>> sturdy of stalk,
>> fragile of canopy,
>> keeping old promises
>>
>> made last year,
>> as the earth turned -
>> shyly pleased to be seen.
>>
>
Douglas Barbour
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