After Heartease New England, for Lorna, that's Lorna Goodison.

After Heartease New England

 

It’s not no bird
trapped underneath no bridge
it is a soul bird
wheeling towards a springe

Lord teach wings how
in the stark silence of these evenings
in the fine chiselled rock spaces
to fold and nest

‘use me oh Lord
use even me…’

for I have heard
so faintly given
the soft/loud cry
for small/large ease

the blue note given
the bird
with swollen throat
receives and gives
the perfect yellow note

from And Caret Bay Again: New & Selected Poems (Peepal Tree Press, 2012), first published in Shame Trees Don’t Grow Here (Peepal Tree Press, 1992), © Velma Pollard 1992, used by permission of the author and the publisher.

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