When rising sun had scarcely cast
Full shadow ‘pon my chin,
I labored early through the fields
And sought what treasures conquest yields.
Whatever marks the land did know,
Carved there fallen discontent,
The new-bloomed snow, smooth and unrent,
Hid from my sight
Like sheets of white
With lovers’ favor yet to win.
I trudged each meadow, seeking out
A pasture yet unplowed
By reverent or admiring word,
By feet of farmer, deer, or bird.
Illumined by no poet’s eye,
And so unknown, unloved, forlorn,
My gaze alone it might have borne,
So rendering,
Surrendering
The beauty nature had endowed.
And after gazing long, then I
Might muddy first her snow.
Lest rabbit or a hapless wren
Should mar her anyway, and then
Some laborer with uncouth feet
Would steal the right that should be mine
As author of such lyric line
And seeker sure
Of fields so pure…
Perhaps with men was ever so.
But now the sun has climbed past noon
And speeds toward western hills.
And even January’s shine
Whose tepid light did illumine
And jewel bedeck my meadow’s train
Has wrinkled now its argent gown;
Shown gaunt the temple ‘neath her crown.
And once concealed,
Now comes revealed
Her imperfections, rifts, and rills.
What morning’s beauty had obscured;
Geographies of strife.
Warren, gopher hole, and nest
Where tiny ones strove, cursed, and blessed,
And there beneath the graying mat
Of autumn’s uncollected crop
Lie seeds that will not fail or stop,
But burst anew
From April dew,
The canvas of a common life.
Though spoilt my field, my field has lain,
Though long my feet have known
The clay beneath her idol white,
I’ve grown to love the feel and sight
Of ev’ry furrow, crease, and line
That holds the promise or the tale
Of life lived here within this veil;
Of triumphs, fears,
Of joys and tears;
A harvest from a true seed sown.
For snow’s a dagger wrought from ice
Whose soft and deadly blow
Is lethal still when given by
A million blades that beautify
For the unregenerate eye.
But wisdom seeks and will attend
The beauty marks that struggles lend
The clefts and mars,
Wrinkles and scars,
The telltale signs of life below.