Poet Laureate!

[mamculuna]

One of many,many reasons I'm glad that Donald Hall was selected (and I kind of include the ghost of Jane Kenyon with him now in all his poems):

An old life

Snow fell in the night.
At five-fifteen I woke to a bluish
mounded softness where
the Honda was. Cat fed and coffee made,
I broomed snow off the car
and drove to the Kearsarge Mini-Mart
before Amy opened
to yank my Globe out of the bundle.
Back, I set my cup of coffee
beside Jane, still half-asleep,
murmuring stuporous
thanks in the aquamarine morning.
Then I sat in my blue chair
with blueberry bagels and strong
black coffee reading news,
the obits, the comics, and the sports.
Carrying my cup twenty feet,
I sat myself at the desk
for this day's lifelong
engagement with the one task and desire.

Donald Hall from The New Criterion (Jan. 1995)

Apologies for not having the patience to set all the indents correctly. You can see it as it should be at http://www.izaak.unh.edu/exhibits/kenhall/OLDLIFE.HTM

And here is Jane Kenyon:

Peonies at Dusk

White peonies blooming along the porch
send out light
while the rest of the yard grows dim.

Outrageous flowers as big as human
heads! They're staggered
by their own luxuriance: I had
to prop them up with stakes and twine.

The moist air intensifies their scent,
and the moon moves around the barn
to find out what it's coming from.

In the darkening June evening
I draw a blossom near, and bending close
search it as a woman searches
a loved one's face.


Jane Kenyon from Constance(1993)

Comments

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

I really liked _white apples_. I think that is up there too.