Remember before all the house news that I wanted to memorize six poems this year? I gave myself two months for each one, and now that it’s nearly the end of February I’d better step up the work on “The Poems of Our Climate.” I have the first stanza down, but there are two more. Here’s what I have memorized, just right for a snowy morning:
I
Clear water in a brilliant bowl,
Pink and white carnations. The light
In the room more like a snowy air,
Reflecting snow. A newly-fallen snow
At the end of winter when afternoons return.
Pink and white carnations – one desires
So much more than that. The day itself
Is simplified: a bowl of white,
Cold, a cold porcelain, low and round,
With nothing more than the carnations there.