So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed - Award Of Merit (2008) The Word Guild

<i>So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed</i> - Award Of Merit (2008) The Word Guild
A poetic journey with the poet's missionary grandparents to the China they served in between 1923 and 1951. CHECK OUT THE REVIEWS OF BOTH BOOKS (below)

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Poem: BEHIND MY EYES

The feeling behind my eyes is older than -----my eyes
its roots run deep ---deeper than the
-----hollowness
of what wouldn’t come early in school
deeper than the birdlike way attention
-----settled on a branch
then left it swaying ---abandoned

Did it begin behind my father’s eyes
reflecting London Ontario in depression
when his mother died
& his father was left standing
a barren maple on a winter street

Did it begin behind my mother’s eyes
in a boarding school in China
where her parents’ love came by mail
(when the mail could get through)
a blossom dropping petals in the rain

I’ve ripped out every trace of that feeling
like the cedar shrubs from our back
-----garden
whose roots I battle each spring
but I know ---oh too well
what’s just beneath the surface

(This poem first appeared in Wascana Review)

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