Day Lilies

New poems are starting to come along. I found a scribble, really (a first draft of a poem on loose leaf) in James Wright's Collected Poems, and decided to rework a few of the lines. A few images seemed right. I kept them, rewrote them, and by the end of the afternoon it was pretty well done. I don't have a clue when I wrote it--probably years ago. I like finding these things. I feel a bit like a squirrel who buries a pine cone and finds it again months later.

DAY LILIES

Today, tired
of the thorns
and shadows of grief,
I am filling with light.

The brook carries the sky
on its back to the sea.
The kingfisher clatters
above the bridge,

waking the lilies
and trout. Out there
on a small patch of lawn
dandelions big as daisies

are almost open. Desire
sleeps on in a spruce cone,
in a snail hunkered down
with its shadow.

There’s a secret out there
somewhere in the grass.
God have mercy on the grass,
thickening its blades in the sun.

(Copyright 2006, Allan Cooper)