Miriam Sagan
Miriam In The Bosque
Water, the spilt silk of marsh
On desert, bare hills, peaks of snow
That might be Africa, the Arctic
South of Socorro, New Mexico
Where snow geese drift upon the bank
In avalanche, like a false north
That draws the eye and compass point
A moving pole of feathers, snow capped
And in the sky the sandhill cranes
The blue-grey crowd
Kyrie-ing, purring like cats
Awkward, elegant
A silk kimono thrown against the clouds
10,000 cranes
patterned like origami papers
Folded by school children at Hiroshima
And we were there
My friend, a woman with my name
Two women beneath the flight of cranes
The golden pheasant in the shadow
The mule deer in the scrub
We who had no place to go but home
In scarves and hats, absurdly human
As sunset caught the low red bush
Not really bulrushes, she said
And who but us
Could care for bulrushes so much
Or think of Egypt in the Bosque marsh
And Pharoh’s daughter with her slender hands
Pulling out the hero we had set afloat
By heron, ibis, and by sandhill flight.
On desert, bare hills, peaks of snow
That might be Africa, the Arctic
South of Socorro, New Mexico
Where snow geese drift upon the bank
In avalanche, like a false north
That draws the eye and compass point
A moving pole of feathers, snow capped
And in the sky the sandhill cranes
The blue-grey crowd
Kyrie-ing, purring like cats
Awkward, elegant
A silk kimono thrown against the clouds
10,000 cranes
patterned like origami papers
Folded by school children at Hiroshima
And we were there
My friend, a woman with my name
Two women beneath the flight of cranes
The golden pheasant in the shadow
The mule deer in the scrub
We who had no place to go but home
In scarves and hats, absurdly human
As sunset caught the low red bush
Not really bulrushes, she said
And who but us
Could care for bulrushes so much
Or think of Egypt in the Bosque marsh
And Pharoh’s daughter with her slender hands
Pulling out the hero we had set afloat
By heron, ibis, and by sandhill flight.
Page(s) 4
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The