Suggests supreme, fluid, great --- 'So this is how you swim inward,so this is how you flow outward, so this is how you pray" Mary Oliver
Woman
Spikey as a hedgehog
she looks into the book of life;
humble as a rabbit’s ear
she reads a sentence there.
Vibrant as a python
she walks across a dusty plain;
stronger that a mountain top
she turns to face the lion.
Breathing like a stallion
she waits before the city gate;
secret like an owl in flight,
dances to her fate.
Dreams, of course, - are something –
(but shadows)
compared to green grass or thorny roses,
froth of hawthorn in early spring,
summer’s lazy river bank
or cooling hedgerows brown in fall
when a nightingale rouses and carols;
(but, growing older)
not wiser,
I found a shining
- constant –
certainly you, my love.
A Willow bends
It seems like only when
he thinks he’s got it right
- a surge of ancient strength
rises up his skeleton
but only when her words
begin to proves him wrong
- he starts to understand
how bones can slowly melt;
made of humble jelly
bending through a brittle husk
and, in the heat of battle, really
nothing’s worth too much.
She tells him – til he gets it,
working out what strength is.
Very nice, John! Sonnets are not easy, and yours tells a story very well, and quite beautifully.
ReplyDeleteFirst he deludes, then he seeks, and accepts.
ReplyDeleteQuiet and clear, thank you John.