October 9, 2017 – “drumming the roof, the rain’s
insistent heartbeat”
I’ll be gone all week — Mon-Wed meeting with Conference of Mercy Higher Education Mission officers in DC. Wed—>early Sat Denver for the Trustee meeting at Regis University. It’s probable there will be a Wednesday post but none on Friday. Why do all these early autumn travel days remind me of Denise Levertov’s poem about falling in love as an elderly woman? The poem is as improbably playful as the leaves riding the wind gusts.
I love the poem, hope you do too.
Have a good day.
john sj
today’s post
Ancient Airs and Dances
I
I knew too well
what had befallen me
when, one night, I put my lips to his wineglass
after he left–an impulse I thought was locked away with a smile
into memory’s museum.
When he took me to visit friends and the sea, he lay
asleep in the next room’s dark where the fire
rustled all night; and I, from a warm bed, sleepless,
watched through the open door
that glowing hearth, and heard,
drumming the roof, the rain’s
insistent heartbeat.
Greyhaired, I have not grown wiser,
unless to perceive absurdity
is wisdom. A powerless wisdom.
II
Shameless heart! Did you not vow to learn
stillness from the heron
quiet from the mists of fall,
and from the mountain–what was it?
Pride? Remoteness?
You have forgotten already!
And now you clamor again
like an obstinate child demanding attention,
interrupting study and contemplation.
You try my patience. Bound as we are
together for life, must you now,
so late in the day, go bounding sideways,
trying to drag me with you?
Denise Levertov – Evening Train
