Monday, January 27, 2014

"...a heron still as a hieroglyph..."

Out on the Flats

Out on the flats, a heron still
as a hieroglyph carved
on the soft gray face of morning.

You asked, when I seemed far away,
what it meant but were gone
when I turned to you with an answer.

Nothing mysterious—hunger,
a taste for salt tides,
distance, and a gift of flight.

"Out on the Flats" by Leonard Nathan, from The Potato Eaters. © Orchises Press, 1998.  (buy now)

From "The Writer's Almanac"

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Langsandy

A heron

    stares

into

the pools of

night


Stars

glitter in

its

  &nabsp sight


It stalks

through mirrors

dark as

    steel


pale lilies

    nod

and

constellations

reel

river song said...

beautiful poem – nice comment, too!

tom billard said...

love the photo!