"Solitude Late at Night in the Woods"

-
 I
The body is like a November birch facing the full moon
And reaching into the cold heavens.
In these trees there is no ambition, no sodden body, no leaves,
Nothing but bare trunks climbing like cold fire!

 II
My last walk in the trees has come. At dawn
I must return to the trapped fields,
To the obedient earth.
The trees shall be reaching all the winter.

III
It is a joy to walk in the bare woods.
The moonlight is not broken by the heavy leaves.
The leaves are down, and touching the soaked earth,
Giving off the odor that partridges love.

-- from Silence in the Snowy Fields
by Robert Bly

Comments

  1. BillNovember 4, 2010 at 7:21 AM

    Very nice images from Bly, Emily! Thanks for the reminder.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Emily BrisseNovember 4, 2010 at 8:16 AM

    No problem. I find myself reading a lot of his work lately. Are you a Frost man? Any other NE poets you enjoy?

    ReplyDelete

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