Cherry blossoms charged pink,
\nblinked of rich red future rush
\nof fine new fruit,
\nfalling
\nfreshly to me;
\nonly too soon did I see,
\nreposing in now-familiar limbs,
\nthat smooth red wood would so well suit
\nfor carving fine rich furniture;
\ncutting and milling it
\nI moved on.<\/p>\n
Ranging
\nin wide rolling tides of pine,
\nforests of firs, all the coniferous brittle
\nturpentine trees
\nbreathed on me
\na fresh crisp needle-fragrance;
\nI grew as wild and wide as that common tree.
\nBut then I began to see
\nhow broad pine beams
\nbuild structure into dreams —
\nand again I saw
\ntimbers toppled and trimmed,
\ntreated for use.
\nI moved on.<\/p>\n
Along a lonely road
\na live oak leaned and spoke
\nroughly in rich tones to me:
\nmoss-bearded sage,
\nissuing wisdom gray with age,
\ngrumbling green solidity.
\nI grew tough,
\ndrew up gnarled and huge;
\nbut soon enough
\nhard floors and solid stairs
\ncalled for the oak, broken and cut.
\nNothing was left then but
\nto move on.<\/p>\n
Kneeling about the base
\nof a towering cypress temple tended
\nby storks and egret priests,
\nI needed to grow to know the grace,
\nthe grand patience of the place:
\ninsular spike of pride,
\nmystical spire spun with thin green.
\nBut then,
\nagain at the edge of understanding,
\nI stepped away and wanted
\nweatherproof wood
\nso my structures would stand when I
\nmoved on.<\/p>\n
Save me the still willows,
\nsilent, to wait on —
\nsoul, let me sit awhile,
\nshifting and watching,
\nsoftly waiting,
\nsifting my will
\nslowly away.<\/p>\n
(1966<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cherry blossoms charged pink, blinked of rich red future rush of fine new fruit, falling freshly to me; only too soon did I see, reposing in now-familiar limbs, that smooth red wood would so well suit for carving fine rich furniture; cutting and milling it I moved on. Ranging inRead More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1963-1967"],"gutentor_comment":1,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions\/837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jick.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}