Poem of the Day
1981
By Asiya Wadud
in a world the orange sun resets
in a world the orange sun resets
Evasive souls, of whom the wise lose track,
Die in each night, who, with their day-tongues, sift
The waking-taste of manna or of blood:
The cross staggered him. At the cliff-top
Thomas, beneath its burden, stood
While the dulled wood
Chased down, and baited for the kill,
And naked to men’s eyes,
I struggled blindly a great while
In my family, a silver cup
is called a goblet.
A room with books, however small,
a library.
Against the burly air I strode,
Where the tight ocean heaves its load,
Crying the miracles of God.
When snow like sheep lay in the fold
And winds went begging at each door‚
And the far hills were blue with cold,
Poetry as salutation; taste
Of Pentecost’s ashen feast. Blue wounds.
The tongue’s atrocities. Poetry
When snow like sheep lay in the fold
And winds went begging at each door‚
And the far hills were blue with cold,
I looked for rest, though without love.
Since I had found a course to run
Deep as a river in its groove
For whom the possessed sea littered on both shores
Ruinous arms; being fired, and for good,
To sound the constitution of just wars