Names of Loss and Beauty
I'm continuing the Canadian poets "theme" today with one from another poet. If anyone has ever read the novel, As For Me and My House, Lorna Crozier is the poet who wrote a series of poems from the perspective of the main character of this novel, whose sole name throughout is "Mrs. Bentley".
Names of Loss and Beauty
Lorna Crozier
I have never seen a catalpa tree
or one that bears persimmons.
Since moving to the Coast
I've noted others on the calendar,
their blossoming time: magnolia, dogwood,
and a bush called piers japonica.
In May wisteria tumbles from our roof
as if rain thought itself inside
a flower, another way of falling.
I don't know what this new beauty means.
I've lost so many things
I once thought dear and permanent.
A few good friends, the blue
snow gives back to morning.
I could list more here, but what's the sense?
Magnolia petals shine so much like flesh
without the stains or softness
aging brings,
it hurts to watch them fall.
From What the Living Won't Let Go, 1999.
Names of Loss and Beauty
Lorna Crozier
I have never seen a catalpa tree
or one that bears persimmons.
Since moving to the Coast
I've noted others on the calendar,
their blossoming time: magnolia, dogwood,
and a bush called piers japonica.
In May wisteria tumbles from our roof
as if rain thought itself inside
a flower, another way of falling.
I don't know what this new beauty means.
I've lost so many things
I once thought dear and permanent.
A few good friends, the blue
snow gives back to morning.
I could list more here, but what's the sense?
Magnolia petals shine so much like flesh
without the stains or softness
aging brings,
it hurts to watch them fall.
From What the Living Won't Let Go, 1999.