Poetry reading day

I got this from Table Talk and from Books Please blogs (don't ask me to link to their site from within this blog, I still can't figure this out, technologically challenged as I am, see their blog sites at the bottom of my postings.......). I think it is an excellent idea:




3rd Annual Brigid in Cyberspace Poetry Reading

So, in honor of Brigid (who is the Goddess I am learning about this year) - St Brigid's Day, and Groundhog Day here in Canada (where we have a foot of snow that fell in yesterday's storm), here is my poem:

The Swan

Across the wide waters
something comes
floating - a slim
and delicate

ship, filled
with white flowers -
and it moves
on its miraculous muscles

as though time didn't exist,
as though bringing such gifts
to the dry shore
was a happiness

almost beyond bearing.
And now it turns its dark eyes,
it rearranges
the clouds of its wings,

it trails
an elaborate webbed foot,
the color of charcoal.
Soon it will be here.

Oh, what shall I do
when that poppy-colored beak
rests in my hand?
Said Mrs Blake of the poet:

I miss my husband's company -
he is so often
in paradise.
Of course! the path to heaven

doesn't lie down in flat miles.
It's in the imagination
with which you perceive
this world,

and the gestures
with which you honor it.
Oh, what will I do, what will I say, when those
white wings
touch the shore?


Mary Oliver, from "Owls and Other Fantasies"

Happy Cyberspace Poem Day! Enjoy the snow, and if you are somewhere warm - enjoy the signs of spring!