Book of Hours (revised)
Dawn
Oh let us have an hour
for coming on, an hour
of lightswitches, a coffee hour,
an hour for inking pens,
a toothbrush hour, an hour of sight,
an hour of light deepening over
the banks of morning.
Work
The mind bunches its black shoulders
and flaps free of the body.
How serious the mind is!
Tilting its glossed head.
Marching stiff-legged in ditches.
Noon
The sun, marching.
Under that great eye,
nothing dares.
Even hills
pull in their shadows.
Progress
Great plumes from the steel mills
and lakers in long lines —
how lovely even this
powerline beaded with starlings.
Long Shadows
As a great wave
pulling into shallows rises,
so longing crests
on the shelf of the day.
Pinking
Tender as sepia the sun
slats into the hour
of things becoming themselves,
the leaves more leaves, your hands
more hands, our shingled roof
a lid of shining.
Twilight
As whirling swallows
pour in chimneys and wells,
so at this hour
does something quick
fill the hollows of our lives.
Moon
Between mirror and shadow, the moon slips.
Moon, moon – from you
measure, meter, memory, month.
The first calendar,
the first loss we saw coming.
Drowsing
Snow softens the night,
heaps the bird house
like a lost pagoda.
Say blanket. Say
covering.
True Night
Oh let us have an hour
of snow falling into water,
a traceless hour, an hour
of unfelt change. Let the skin
take up the work of breathing,
let the room sigh, let sleep
tuck its fine head
in folded wings.
_____________
Had my revision cleaver out. This is getting there. Read the other devotionals. Or for a treat, read Jane Kenyon's "Let Evening Come,"more or less my ideal for this kind of thing. Happy midsummer, everyone. A night to burn regrets.
3 Comments
I still think these are wonderful. But a point of clarification — in Progress, what is the meaning of lakers? Obviously not the basketball team, so I’m missing something… Loons or cranes, is my best guess. Either that or you mean barges. Or some Canadian meaning that I am not privy to….
Lakers are big freight ships that ply the Great Lakes. You can sometimes see lakers carrying iron ore lined up at the port near the steel works in Hamilton.
I think they call them lakers in Wisconson, too…
“Lakers” are built to fit the locks of the Welland Canal. The Edmund Fitzgerald was a laker.