Revival

 

  R  E  V  I  V  A  L

 

It arises like some need

Out of the innermost,

Her story retold, the sum

Of my deepest reflex

Going back to old letters,

Faded loops and forms

Put down then by a hand

At the behest of a mind

That has gone.

 

Going back to rub the core

Into an awakening

Of scattered memory, conjoin her

Late animate being with a photograph,

Making her speak the words

Of her letters,

Think her thoughts,

For a glimpse of what

I have forgotten.

Mother’s Day: VISIT

                                              

                                   My poem for Mother’s Day:

 

                                                   V I S I T

 

                                      Shall I paint her portrait

                         Or keep it in pieces, dim and dark undone;

                              Shall I put together a jigsaw figure

                          Who has gone to pray in the Himalayas

                       And presently will return, as we were told?

 

                             She must feel cold on a blue glacier.

 

                                           But I remember,

                                      She was warm and frail

                            Beautifully familiar on a carry- chair

                         Lifted on dark strong porter’s shoulders

                                  To the fearful steaming train.

 

                           Up the quick flight of steps to visit her –

                    The apartment was the same, the curtains hung

                             The same fan spun; our heart beats

                       Filled the empty room with promise and fear.

 

                                Quietly a voice behind intoned:

                                ‘She has gone to the Himalayas’,

 

                                 And through the curtains shone

                                        A steady summer’s sun

                                        And on the counterpane

                                                 A blue glacier.