Hi Terri

I love that poem by Jane Hirshfield as well as that painting by Warwick Goebel. When my mother first entered the early stages of her disease ( Alzheimmer's) she couldn't remember things in sequence or the repetition of them. But when she looked out the window in November, she saw the deer coming into the yard and was mesmerized. She had seen them many times before during this season because they always came up from the woods to feed on the pine seeds, shrub berries and fallen apples left there, over-ripe and almost rotting. It was a natural ritual for them. Yet, this time when she watched them it was like seeing them for the first time and they affected her greatly, as deer have the power to do.

An Absence

The sky turns to a hearth
of ashes. A few embers
of sunlight breathe

and you wonder
what dreams burned
in the coming of shorter days.

Places to go, projects to complete --
you cannot remember. Outside
deer wade through leaves
and stretch their necks to nibble
on evergreen berries.

You watch the wild shapes --envying
their agility, their lithe
sense of being that lifts
and lusters golden in the haze.

You think this is the first time
they have entered the yard, come so close
to the house; and then your mind
falls to a hush. Thoughts fade
absorbed by another earth -- last

month's garden where the same
deer sauntered in, hungry.
The stark woods awaiting snow.
________________________________
Again, thank you!
Wendy

I love Warwick Goble's art. And now I love Jane Hirshfield's poem, thank you for introducing it to me. I hope life is good even if overwhelming, and offer ((hugs)) either way.

Do the opium poppies in the foreground of the picture have some significance?

Interesting. As we all know, 'Opium eaters' have figured significantly in several fields of the arts; but what a dangerous game to play!

Thanks so much Teri
for your kind words toward this poem!! They are deeply valued!!

Take care
Wendy