T A K E H E A R T
A Conversation in Poetry
Edited & Introduced by Wesley McNair, Maine Poet Laureate
In the poetry of Gary Lawless, who resides in Nobleboro, nature is often a source of inspiration and vision. This week’s poem offers a compelling example.
Some Clear Night
By Gary Lawless
Some clear night like this,
when the stars are all out and shining,
our old dogs will come back to us,
out of the woods, and lead us
along the stone wall to the cove.
There will be foxes, and loons,
and a houseboat floating on the lake.
The trees will lean in, a lantern
swinging over the water, the creaking of
oars.
Now we will learn the true names of the
stars.
Now we will know what the trees are
saying.
There is wood in the stove.
We left the front door open.
Does the farmhouse know
that we’re never coming back?
Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Poem copyright © 1998 by Gary Lawless. Reprinted from “Caribouddhism,” Blackberry Books, 1998, by permission of Gary Lawless. Questions about submitting to Take Heart may be directed to David Turner, Special Assistant to the Maine Poet Laureate, at poetlaureate@mainewriters.org or 207-228-8263.
For Gary Lawless, as he listens to the trees and learns the true names of the stars all year into the coming winter:
Now stretch pale fibers of the day again
And the vast weaving that the sun betrays
Is lying open to the winter rain.
All color is an echoing of greys
Half danced to by the jagged evergreens.
The field’s impassioned flowers have fought the sting
Of the cold long ago. A mandrake leans
In a locked swamp, the ice’s overhang.
Shadows toward night grow till they loop the world.
The curved blade of their East cuts one by one
Dark patterns on the landscape. Soon the cold
Of light will tunnel through the air alone
And we will learn how little CAN satisfy,
Watching a lonely star possess the sky.
Henry