Magdalena Ball #21: Spring (revisited)

Spring (revisited)
                  after Edna St Vincent Millay

beauty is not enough
returning and repurposing
opening stickily

you can no longer quiet me
with the redness of leaves
I know what I know

sun on my neck
spikes of the crocus
the earth’s good smell

life is an empty cup
a flight of uncarpeted stairs

it’s not enough
to come down this hill
babbling
strewing flowers

I know what I know


Last poem in the series "Five Ways with Edna St Vincent Millay"

Magdalena Ball #12: Time does not bring relief (revisited)

Time does not bring relief (revisited)
                  after Edna St Vincent Millay

time does not bring
the weeping of rain

the shrinking
of tide

old snows melt
every mountain-side

last year’s leaves
smoke in every lane

there is no memory
here



Fourth poem in the series Five Ways with Edna St Vincent Millay

Magdalena Ball #8: The Return (Revisited)

The Return (Revisited)
             After Edna St Vincent Millay

Earth, her child
the gregarious town
returns, depleted
to still woods

she knows
in undertones
has always known

wounded lynx
trailing blood
sheltered, anonymous
tasting of dirt and wax

fear is a weight
already undone, her children

trim the year
strip its bones
she forgets us

absorbs it all
war, love, tragedy
books, castles
strategy and structure
seven and a half billion
justifications
hidden dialogues
the broken web of connection
loam

an easy return
for her, to basics
bacteria, the simple life

the warm ledge, this alder leaf


Part 3 of Five Ways with Edna St Vincent Millay

Magdalena Ball #6: Dirge Without Music (Revisited)

Dirge Without Music (Revisited) 
              After Edna St. Vincent Millay

I am not resigned to
hard ground

beyond memory or record
into the darkness

wise, lovely
lilies and laurels
I am not

the earth
resigned to darkness

dull, indiscriminate dust
what you felt, you knew
a formula a phrase
lost

the honest look

your eyes
feed the roses

fragrant blossom
indiscriminate dust
do not approve

into the darkness
gently, quietly

I know
lilies and laurels

am not
resigned.


(might be part 2 of an Edna series -  tentatively: “Five ways with Edna St. Vincent Millay")