March (c, d)

March (d)

Janus*

As youth leaves us and the naked trees
bestrung with jewels of water do not stir,
so still, so gray the January dawn,
"forget," "remember," drift into the twigs,
the dripping mist, the waiting atmosphere.

Your face, my face,
the water in the rivulet by the road,
the myriad faces flowing through the hours,
dissolve and rush away among the stems.

Gradually the gray sun half-concealed
suggests that dissolution may be warm,
that I may not regret this gentle magic,
although the moment of your coming broke
like startled herons from the misty creek.

Deanna Hopper

* Janus: Roman god of portals and beginnings, portrayed as having two faces, one looking forward, one back, for whom the month of January is named.



March (c, untitled)


This square sake cup
so how is it in the middle there--
the round moon?

-Gregory Wonderwheel