[identity profile] penguinboy.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] greatpoetry
Absences
by Donald Justice

It's snowing this afternoon and there are no flowers.
There is only this sound of falling, quiet and remote,
Like the memory of scales descending the white keys
Of a childhood piano--outside the window, palms!
And the heavy head of the cereus, inclining,
Soon to let down its white or yellow-white.

Now, only these poor snow-flowers in a heap,
Like the memory of a white dress cast down...
So much has fallen.
.....................And I, who have listened for a step
All afternoon, hear it now, but already falling away,
Already in memory. And the terrible scales descending
On the silent piano; the snow; and the absent flowers abounding.

Date: 2003-01-09 10:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crysanthia.livejournal.com
You post the best poems. This is the landscape of my mind.

July 2025

S M T W T F S
  12345
6789101112
1314 1516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Feb. 28th, 2026 04:25 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios