Leaf Pressed, Moon Tipped

"So our job as writers is not to diddle around our whole lives in the dot but to take one big step out of it and sink into the big sky and write from there. Let everything run through us and grab as much as we can of it with a pen and paper. Let yourself live in something that is already rightfully yours—your own wild mind." ~Natalie Goldberg, Wild Mind

Into this World
Let us die gracefully into this world
like a leaf pressed in stone
let us go quietly breathing our last breath
let the sun continue to revolve in its great golden dance
let us leave it be as it is
and not hold on
not even to the moon
tipped as it will be tonight
and beckoning wildly in the sea [emphasis added]

Natalie Goldberg

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Just the other day I was writing about Elinor Wylie's often anthologized poem, "Velvet Shoes" (see Fortnightly and Quotidian posts; and also Nets to Catch the Winds, 1921). It seems that I have known Wylie's elegant, seasonal poem forever, though I can't remember when or where I first encountered it. Most likely my long familiarity comes from its inclusion in one of my many Christmas anthologies. You can find it here, for example:

I'm also lucky enough to own a vintage copy of Wylie's fourth and last collection of poems, Angels and Earthly Creatures, published in 1929.

Front page inscription seen below:
Marie Hobson
Park Chambers
N.Y.C.

One of my favorites from Angels and Earthly Creatures is this brief lyric, tucked in amidst the sonnets and longer elegies:

Fair Annet's Song
One thing comes and another thing goes:
Frosts in November drive away the rose;
Like a blowing ember the wind-flower blows
And drives away the snows.

It is sad to remember and sorrowful to pray:
Let us laugh and be merry, who have seen today
The last of the cherry and the first of the may;
And neither one will stay.

Wylie's bittersweet comparison of November to May has been set to music a number of times, notably by composer Paul Carey in his four movement tribute to the seasons of the year, Into This World. [click to read his explanation].

Carey choses Wylie's poem, "Annet's Song" to symbolize spring (though equally appropriate for late autumn); Robert Louis Stevenson's "Tropic Rain" to capture summer's intensity; an adaptation of Rilke's "The Leaves are Falling" to evoke a gentle autumn; and to remind us of winter's finality -- as well as for the title of his choral arrangement -- the haunting lines of Natalie Goldberg's "Into this World" (above).

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P.S.
I seem to recall my son Ben taking a picture
of me photographing the sidewalk leaf in the rain:

New Year's Eve 2012 ~ Dallas

P.S.S.
For more wintry snow poems
see my current FORTNIGHTLY post
~ "First Snow in Indiana"

Soundless Space & Windless Peace

Snow in November

Velvet Shoes
Let us walk in the white snow
In a soundless space;
With footsteps quiet and slow,
At a tranquil pace,
Under veils of white lace.

I shall go shod in silk,
And you in wool,
White as white cow's milk,
More beautiful
Than the breast of a gull.

We shall walk through the still town
In a windless peace;
We shall step upon white down,
Upon silver fleece,
Upon softer than these.

We shall walk in velvet shoes:
Wherever we go
Silence will fall like dews
On white silence below.
We shall walk in the snow.

Elinor Morton Wylie (1885 - 1928)

This and other early snow poems
by Richard Wilbur & Percy Bysshe Shelley
on my current post
~ "First Snow in Indiana" ~
The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker:
A Fortnightly [every 14th & 28th] Literary Blog of
Connection & Coincidence; Custom & Ceremony

Wintry Mix

Unexpected Snow Day

Back of the House
~ Photographed by our Backdoor Neighbor ~

Thanks Suzan!Velvet Shoes
Let us walk in the white snow
In a soundless space;
With footsteps quiet and slow,
At a tranquil pace,
Under veils of white lace.

I shall go shod in silk,
And you in wool,
White as white cow’s milk,
More beautiful
Than the breast of a gull.

We shall walk through the still town
In a windless peace;
We shall step upon white down,
Upon silver fleece,
Upon softer than these.

We shall walk in velvet shoes:
Wherever we go
Silence will fall like dews
On white silence below.
We shall walk in the snow.

Elinor Wylie, 1885 – 1928
American poet and novelist popular in the 1920s and 1930s

Front Door ~ Ready for Easter
P.S. Big Chill, Big ThawThough not as drastic, I was reminded of Valentine's Day 2007 -- the snowfall of the decade! No more wondering if Winter was really ever going to come or if the season was going to come and go without a nice big snow to mark the occasion. 2007 was not to be one of those winters of merely a few flakes; it was the real thing! The schools closed, the university closed, the county closed. The whole family curled up in front of the television and watched Casablanca a few times. We shoveled and sledded as a community. We celebrated and commiserated together. All of those neighbors who had been cocooned throughout December and January were suddenly out on the sidewalks to greet you and say "hello" -- like summer, except snowy!

First there were the beautiful days, then the worrisome days and the exhilarating days, and finally the mushy, messy days, when the snow began to thaw -- right through the roof and onto the ceiling!

Not only did we wait a long time that year, but no sooner were we mesmerized by the first warm days of Spring than -- whoosh -- they were gone again. Luckily we had a taste of things to come when March went out like a lamb and the neighborhood was filled with the unmistakable signs of Spring Cleaning! Once again the Clean Sweep seemed to bring out the best in everyone as Purdue students volunteered to work side by side with New Chauncey homeowners, planting, raking, and tidying up a winter's worth of debris [same as this past Saturday].

As for this year, once again, we're still waiting! Hopefully March will go out like a lamb, and we can pick up where we left off, with the windows open wide to welcome the warm west wind!
2013


2007