Goldenrod in Winter

With the huge amount of snow we've been getting, I decided to sift through some poems and see if I could find something that reminded me of the fall. I found this goldenrod poem. I was thinking of two things when I wrote it: a line by John Haines ("disappearance begins with you"); and the quote in the poem by an anonymous Irish poet.

GOLDENROD

A delicate voice has been given to me. I hear it always,
rising and falling in joy or grief. It is the voice of the
hidden woman. If I take her hand she is here, then
gone. If I hold her waist, she dances away and is
gone. If I give her blossoms, her face blooms golden
and then fades.

Hold still a moment. I'm no one who will harm you.
I have a broken heart, and "a heart once broken
can never be healed."

Now she leans toward me and, as if it were the
most natural thing in the world, disappears into
the lost avenues of fallen light.

(Copyright Allan Cooper 2008)