As well as having original poems and Shakespeare quotes on my blog, I thought it would be interesting to have highlighted poems by other poets that I have enjoyed reading and highly recommend. Some of the past poets include Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, William Shakespeare, and other famous (or not so famous) poems that I have read and loved.
Having read a wonderful book of poetry entitled What to Make of It on a long plane ride from Stockholm to Munich, I have decided to highlight a poet who is not very well known, but who I think deserves attention for poems that manage to perfectly capture the human spirit of adventure. This week's poem is one that I took a particular liking to; it is elegant and has a magic about it that gave me a little tingle when I read it for the first time.
Prospect
A full moon lights the crown of jungle trees.
In a room above the soughing sea,
a husband and wife read late,
sharing a single lamp
within whose glow a company of moths
warm their dusty, false-eyed wings and doze.
When her husband rises, she follows after,
completing the last day's chores,
shutting windows and closing doors.
But something rustles in-a bird
flown from the forest night.
Thinking it lost, she douses the light,
swings open the door, raises every window.
Bathed in moonshine, her visitor pauses,
black eyes glitter from the arm of a chair.
Moving through panels of shadow and pearl,
now here and now gone, like a wraith
she sails, waving her arms to show it home.
Wondering whom she's freed the whole house to,
her husband switches the lights and looks
in time to see a small bird glide to rest
within his wife's raised hand.
"A miracle!" he says. And so it is-
wild wings nestled in her palm.
