Poem from Imbolc


Herring-bone of blackbird lighting on snow,

A wing’s touch, tapering, the fine dust of it

Cast like sand. Further up, willow stalk

Halved by deer’s tooth. The valley swale,

Easy cleft of mountain. The woods permitting

Entrance & the gossamer cloud in a regress

Of mergings, where it subsumed & was subsumed by,

Was a tree’s breath a while, withdrew,

Was a willow’s shiver, a shudder of sunlight

Piercing through. Where it was shadow

Or worn dull arc of ice. Where it wandered

Through your skin & sloughed over the rim

Of a sloping canyon to fall imbalanced

At the river’s edge & see the grey stones

Under glimmer softening & rounding out

Over time—

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