Monday 30 May 2016

Jane Kenyon: Wood Thrush




High on Nardil and June light
I wake at four,
waiting greedily for the first
note of the wood thrush. Easeful air
presses through the screen
with the wild, complex song
of the bird, and I am overcome

by ordinary contentment.
What hurt me so terribly
all my life until this moment?
How I love the small, swiftly
beating heart of the bird
singing in the great maples;
its bright, unequivocal eye.


Published 1993; the last poem in a nine-part sequence, "Having It Out With Melancholy". The sequence starts from Kenyon's use of prescription drugs against clinical depression. Melancholy will win: we sense that the illuminating serenity gained from the thrush's song will be transitory.

No comments:

Post a Comment