Tuesday, April 2, 2019

AWAKE AT THE END OF NIGHT--a Poem for National Poetry Month

As National Poetry Month begins, I am still battling with this shattered right shoulder that has a destroyed rotator cuff. The good news is that I have finally recovered from the awful illness that help me and its grip much of this winter.

For my first National Poetry Month poem, I thought I would post “Awake at the End of Night,” in part because I am spending so many wakeful nights right now and have in recent months. The wonderful thing about the end of winter is that, during the worst wakeful moments late in the night as morning is approaching, now I can hear the cacophony of bird songs, and it is so welcome.

There is nothing so lovely as listening to a northern mockingbird sing in the dark. You will find that such an image or sound shows up in the number of my poems, simply because this bird is so important to me. I wish you all a month of marvelous poetry. I am enjoying all of the Poetry that is being posted on Twitter and on Facebook. I hope to post poems several times a week throughout the month on this blog, but I am teaching a pretty intensive class right now in writing the novel with lots of written assignments for the students, entailing lots of written feedback from me, so we'll have to see how the month goes.

AWAKE AT THE END OF NIGHT

Praise the mockingbird singing farewell to night.
Praise the owl flying home with its mouse-feast.
Praise the beetle scurrying from sudden light.
Praise the moon sailing down to sleep.
Praise the branches whipping the house in the wind.
Praise thunder shaking windows and walls.
Praise sheets of lightning flaring across the sky.
Praise the seeds in darkest soil uncurling.
Praise the tendrils of root and stem reaching out.
Praise the worm that leaves riches in burrows behind it.
Praise the rain coursing down the brick walls.
Praise the blanket wrapping in our body heat.
Praise the sound of your even sleep breathing beside me.
Praise the body I wrap my leg around.
Praise the heavy arm thrown over me.
Praise the breath moving in and out between my mouth and yours.
Praise the spirits of the sun and moon that live within us.
Praise all things silent and hidden.
Published in Dark Sister (Mammoth Publications, 2018)

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