For My Daughter

 

And what if after so many words

            the word itself doesn’t survive.

                       Cesar Vallejo, “And What If After”

 

  

If you were here I would not need to try

To tell you how this moon, washed earlier

By rain, is a sallow barely-there yellow now,

Not setting but becoming part of the early light,

Or how this sky is like lapis lazuli, polished

To a glimmering sheen where it rubs against

The ridge edge of the hill.

                                         I don't know how

To tell you the way my wet pines smell, or

What the tart taste of the first gooseberries

I'm going to go out and gather this morning

Is like, how they sound as they drop into

My old tin pail.  How there is a premonition

Of rain ringing in the maple leaves again, as

Though they were little wood wind chimes, or

How the light is reddening now in the clouds,

Reminding me of the Chinese lacquer shimmer

On incense bowls in that long-ago Taipei temple.  

Some things, some places, our lives, are only

What they are in the moment we come to them,

To be entered into wholly then without words,

As you and I would now, if you were here.





Poetry by countryfog
Read 890 times
star mini Editors' choice
Written on 2015-07-02 at 18:34

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Jalaj Soni
Thank you very much for sharing this poem here. It is truly one of the best poems I've read on poetbay..

Hauntingly Beautiful..
2015-09-11


Editorial Team The PoetBay support member heart!
This text has been chosen to be featured on the home page of PoetBay. Thank you for posting it on our poetry website!
2015-08-23



There is a delicate melancholy to this piece that contributes so well to all the fine description, my friend :-)
As you might have noticed, we're fond of nature at BBP. Thus we rejoice in all the images that fill our minds and stir our senses as we read these lines. The rain in the maple leaves is particularly pleasing, but all is a delight.
Applause!
2015-07-09


Jamsbo Rockda The PoetBay support member heart!
The sadness of separation rises up from these words and moves the reader. A very wonderful piece describing brilliantly the things of life that should be shared.
2015-07-05


StillHoppin The PoetBay support member heart!
i cannot even tell you how much of an emotional impact these words hold....
2015-07-04



I can think of hundreds of times when something beautiful I was viewing became less beautiful because there was no one there to share the experience with at the time. I think this is why poetry is so important: we can take those experiences, those sensations, and our responses to them and share them with the entire community of poetry lovers--or, in your case, to one very special person in your life. No man is an island indeed.

The image of the lapis lazuli sky being ''polished'' by the hilltop is inspired. And I love aural images like the plunk-sound of berries falling into a tin bucket.
2015-07-03


josephus The PoetBay support member heart!
So softly gentle and prayerful. I understand your yearning. My daughter is far away in so many ways.
2015-07-02


Lawrence Beck The PoetBay support member heart!
But the words give each of us a glimpse of what you experienced first-hand, and that's a valuable thing.
2015-07-02



Such intricate and beautiful images to share, if she were there. Wow ... this is truly so beautiful and touched with such a yearning. A true masterpiece.
~Ashe
2015-07-02



What a tender,intimate,beautiful poem:)
It simply sings of father to daughter love.
The imagery is soft and delicate also.
This is a divine poem and I will revisit it many times.
Such loveliness.
2015-07-02