Friday, June 23, 2023

Evening

'Poem for the week' -- "Evening":


Another word I love is evening

for the balance it implies, balance

being something I struggle with.

I suppose I would like to be more

a planet, turning in & out of light

It comes down again to polarities,

equilibrium. Evening. The moths

take the place of the butterflies,

owls the place of hawks, coyotes

for dogs, stillness for business,

& the great sorrow of brightness

makes way for its own sorrow.

Everything dances with its strict

negation, & I like that. I have no

choice but to like that. Systems

are evening out all around us—

even now, as we kneel before

a new & ruthless circumstance.

Where would I like to be in five

years, someone asks—& what

can I tell them? Surrendering

with grace to the evening, with

as much grace as I can muster

to the circumstance of darkness,

which is only something else

that does not stay.


-- Jeremy Radin