Saturday, November 30, 2013

November Ends


November ends today.  Many folks that I know look at this time with some trepidation.  A time of more darkness that may lead to dark thoughts and sadness.  But, for me it is a time of more reflection....I seem to "see" better in the dark.  It is a time to gaze at stars and wonder.   This last day of November coincides with the end of deer hunting season here in Maine.  So it also means I can wear cute hats again and Runa can be free of her super hero vest! 



The woods are safe to enter once more.  So I enter the forest of winter contemplation with these 2 poems.  Robert Lax & Thomas Merton; best friends, wise men, prophets in our time...



The Regret


When cold November sits among the reeds like an unlucky fisher

And ducks drum up as sudden as the wind
Out of the rushy river,
We slowly come, robbed of our rod and gun,
Walking amid the stricken cages of the trees.

The stormy weeks have all gone home like drunken hunters,
Leaving the gates of the grey world wide open to December.

But now there is no speech of branches in these broken jails.
Acorn lie over the earth, no less neglected
Than our unrecognizable regret:
And here we stand as senseless as the oaks
As dumb as elms.

And though we seem as grave as jailers, yet we did not come to wonder
Who picked the lock of the past days, and stole our summer.
(We are no longer listeners for curious saws, and secret keys!)

We are indifferent to seasons,
And stand like hills, deaf.
And never hear the last of the escaping year
Go ducking through the bended branches like a leaf.



Thomas Merton ~Selected Poems of Thomas Merton pg 8





darkness
oh the darkness
oh the darkness
of the wood

no light
no light at all
comes through
the trees

when will the light
come stealing,
when will the light
come stealing,
when will the light
come stealing,
through the forest?

darkness
the the darkness
of the woods

no light
no light at all
comes through
the trees.




Robert Lax ~Robert Lax Poems (1962-1997) pg 6


Robert Lax

11-30-1915 ~ 9-26-2000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lax


Happy Birthday! Bob!!! 




2 comments:

  1. I didn't realize that today is Lax's birthday! He is my "patron saint", so I really appreciate the opportunity to be grateful for his birth and his life!

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  2. Thanks, Beth! glad to know another Lax admirer! I read everything I can find about and written by him. I truly love his poetry and his life story. Very much enjoyed the Grace!

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