From as Far as Once

Only a moment ago,

snow covered and all moveless

this winter country of woods

was bright, was beautiful.

Until terrible to see

for in the thought of him

I have such sight that now

the air glitters into

mirror after mirror

and from as far as once-

heavy and struggling to me,

writhing and everywhere

bare and withered black,

the branches of great trees

hold out his arms.

And in this larger place

where sometimes I still reach

to one who wants and cannot

find his way to me-

no mirror now but shatters

with a sound as soft,

as lost, as when tears fall.

And never have I touched

and never touches me,

in all this waste of love,

the one whose outstretched arms

are not of any flesh.

Structure

27 lines · 2 stanzas