Working Knowledge
A human being needs some pride in knowing Some thing that he himself can verify, If it’s no more than the proper time for hoeing And planting beans, or how to still the cry Of newborn things; he needs decisive acts That keep his knowledge clear-cut and unblurred, To hold him steady in the midst […]
Easter Absolution
The earth has long done penance In ashen garb of woe For the great sin the sons of men Committed long ago. But now the winter’s sorrow wins Peace for the ancient pain, And spring’s forgiving grass returns, And spring’s absolving rain. –Saturday Evening Post, 1947 (written in 1942) –republished in Halfway Up the Sky
The Song Beyond
It always seemed to her, her whole life through, There was a song that only she could sing Waiting a little way beyond the blue Clear air of evening gentled by the wing Of one white bird, a little way beyond The haze that lay forever on her hills; A song to which men’s spirits […]