the heart ring of an ancient oak
holds the rain within its core
swaying under the heavy rock flames
pulsating as the leaves disintegrate
black flowing into the ring
but the startled light of a winter snow
in some remote cell
extinguishes the flames
turns over and over
the burnt raw embers
sifting the branches until
this white this gentle this remote
in the rain in the ring
in the wearied roots returns.
___
Andrea Moorhead was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1947. Editor of Osiris and translator of contemporary Francophone poetry, Moorhead publishes in French and in English. Poems and translations have appeared in journals such as Abraxas, Great River Review, The Bitter Oleander, Autre Sud, Estuaire, Poetry Salzburg Review, and Metamorphoses. Poetry collections include From a Grove of Aspen (University of Salzburg Press), Présence de la terre (Écrits des Forges), De loin and Géocide (Le Noroît). Translations include The Edges of Light (Hélène Dorion, Guernica Editions), Night Watch (Abderrahmane Djelfaoui, Red Dragonfly Press), and Dark Menagerie (Élise Turcotte, Guernica Editions, 2014).
Tuesday, April 12th, 2016 9:18 pm
Categories: Archives, Issue 9.4, Poetry
