On the 2nd and 4th Friday of every month SuperForester Jordan “rediscovers” a literary gem from the vast treasure trove of an art form that, in our technological age, has become largely under-appreciated and “lost”.
It’s that time, that time for another potent dose of poetry. Only today I wanted to cut back to the essence of this series. The “found” part. That sense of discovery when you read something that strikes you as beautiful, powerful or profound. That moves you in some way.
And this poem, sent by a friend did that for me. I knew nothing about it or the poet, before writing this. But something in its simple rhythm, the way it flows and builds and weaves together like a tapestry of images, of light and darkness, love and loss and longing, of myth and gratitude and joy… stirred something in me. Maybe it will for you?
The Prayer
Blessed be the year climbing its cliffs, the month crossing the fields
of hours and days, the bridges of minutes, the grass where we stood
that first moment, the festival music keeping our time, the hood
of the season’s sky above us, the moment’s fictive shield
against history, her tattered glance, her broken smile, everything real
or imagined, bless the rivers I invented to carry us, the woods
I planted as our own, bless even the sweet hurt, even the herd
of stars that trample my real heart which she has taught to heal.
Blessed be these trackless words running downstream
following the remote valleys she has cut through my life,
and blessed be the sounds they cannot make, but mean,
and blessed be all these pages watermarked with her name,
these thoughts that wander the unmapped roads of strife
and love, her blessed world whose dream is always a dream.
-Richard Jackson (from his book “Half-Lives”, which you can find here)
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