Fourteen Years Old

Fourteen Years Old

Surprise

Though we’re thinking of it now
I never thought about it then.
So you’ll understand that I
was totally astonished when –

It didn’t exist to me before
for it never crossed my mind.
You see one moment it wasn’t there
And then the next I suddenly find –

To Ruth

Pixie with blue eyes
and soft light hair
her feet full of dance
and her laugh full of dare

Summer Mornings Alone

I walk in long skirts and my feet have no shoes
For they dance in the morning dew
My tresses are long but the wind breathes them back
And is gentle because it is new.
The sky must be young for it laughs as I do
And carries  my wild heart along
The morning’s exuberance of heaven and heart
Is beautiful and it is strong.
I throw my hands high; no bright jewels they have
But glossy green ash leaves they hold
The sun glimmers through them and sweeps through the sky
And the sun is my neck’s only gold.

Untitled

A virgin walked afar one day
She saw and loved the sky
“It breathes” the killdeer heard her say
“And weeps without a sigh.”

Heaven above was high and new
The sun came shining past
The distance, though, it wasn’t blue
But strange and overcast

“Rolling ever, rolling low,
Wild it is, and free,
Rolling darkly there below -”
The virgin stood to see

The sun was streaming through her hair
But this she did not know
She saw the sky was weeping where
The sunshine could not go.

To Fifteen Years Old