Another poem in the section called The Smell of Parsley . You will see why after you read it a few times.
‘It amazes me how close is death to the birth of new life. ‘ We are reminded of this by nature over and over, how the sun bursts through after the darkest storm, how the new buds appear miraculously on the branch of a tree that some could think lifeless, and how the light overcomth the darkest of night each dawn. Nature shows us and we are reminded not to loose hope in the dark, yet how often are we ‘stunned in the impasse of unknowing.’
This poem tells of an incident of waiting ‘stunned in the impasse of unknowing‘. The waiting in the dark and cold of nights. Maybe it could be said the last line was not needed but I added it anyway.
soul’s winter
waiting in winter
on the cusp of spring
for a baby to be born
feels as if the world
has taken a vow of silence
and time is paralysed
it amazes me how close is death
to the birth of new life
outside a straggly wet mop of a day
droops in
skeletal limbs of trees x-rayed against sky
shudder like brittle bones
breathing just a little
tremulously
their cold black presence
chills my blood
stirs thoughts of death
i sense its shadow
shiver in its grip
my heart fumbles
like one lost in a dark night
stunned in the impasse of unknowing
i want to believe that this will change
and that I will soon
be dazzled
and i am
