In A Light Time
by Philip Levine
The alder shudders in the April winds
off the moon. No one is awake and yet
sunlight streams across
the hundred still beds
of the public wards
for children. At ten
do we truly sleep
in a blessed sleep
guarded by angels
and social workers?
Do we dream of gold
found in secret trunks
in familiar rooms?
Do we talk to cats
and dogs? I think not.
I think when I was
ten I was almost
an adult, slightly
less sentimental
than now and better
with figures. No one
could force me to cry,
nothing could convince
me of God’s concern
for America
much less the fall of
a sparrow. I spit
into the wind, even
on mornings like this,
the air clear, the sky
utterly silent,
the fresh light flooding
across bed after
bed as though something
were reaching blindly —
for we are blindest
in sunlight — for hands
to take and eyelids
to caress and bless
before they open
to the alder gone
still and the winds hushed,
before the children
waken separately
into their childhoods.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- After the Sea-Ship. by Walt Whitman
- A Thanksgiving to God for His House by Robert Herrick
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Затмение
- Where Shall We Go? by Vernon Scannell
- A window into the world by Walter William Safar
- Unspoken by Satish Verma
- Night A-Zetten In by William Barnes
- Владимир Маяковский – Заграничная штучка
- Владимир Маяковский – Вот о помощи голодающим отчет (Главполитпросвет №367)
- Федор Сологуб – Под сению креста рыдающая мать
- Николай Глазков – Покуда карты не раскрыты
- My Mother On An Evening In Late Summer by Mark Strand
- The Bakchesarian Fountain poem – Alexander Pushkin
- Ольга Седакова – Неужели, Мария, только рамы скрипят
- My Mother’s Grief
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
Philip Levine ( 1928 – 2015) was an American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for more than thirty years in the English department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well. He served on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets from 2000 to 2006, and was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States for 2011–2012