[Eenc-board] Subject: Our new Poet Laureate-- Kay Ryan

[Elizabeth Burke]

Paired Things

Who, who had only seen wings,
could extrapolate the
skinny sticks of things
birds use for land,
the backward way they bend,
the silly way they stand?
And who, only studying
birdtracks in the sand,
could think those little forks
had decamped on the wind?
So many paired things seem odd.
Who ever would have dreamed
the broad winged raven of despair
would quit the air and go
bandylegged upon the ground,
a common crow?


Patience

by Kay Ryan

Patience is
wider than one
once envisioned,
with ribbons
of rivers
and distant
ranges and
tasks undertaken
and finished
with modest
relish by
natives in their
native dress.
Who would
have guessed
it possible
that waiting
is sustainable—
a place with
its own harvests.
Or that in
time's fullness
the diamonds
of patience
couldn't be
distinguished
from the genuine
in brilliance
or hardness.

Elizabeth Burke
Certified Environmental Educator
MUD PIE PLANET*
703.281.6626
703.839.0977 (cell)
e-burke at cox.net

*Play where you are planted!




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://rtpnet.org/pipermail/eenc-board/attachments/20080723/4c075762/attachment.htm