Vox Populi
A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 20,000 daily subscribers and over 8,000 archived posts.
Sean Sexton: Not Yet the Rise
—but soon. The clouds seem like giant,
annulated shells I only look up to now,
after a poem I’ve been reading. The poet
wrote about frogs and a pond; lastly the meadow
and moon above—a lambent, noctilucent tapestry
—postulating, save for thefts of opportunity,
(and keeping eyes out of poems at certain
moments) one might see a thousand full moons
in a lifetime.
.
And how many rises? The sun ain’t never caught
me in bed, swore a stoic, lively old cowhand once
in an interview, and in so saying, he meant not
a day of his life. An orange tinge of light now touches
beneath a large lemon-ice inclusion, upon lips of soft
blue cloud—an upper and lower—sudden as a kiss
and like a kiss, dissolves. Below, like narrative panels
of a renaissance altarpiece, cattle mill in the green
out of scale with the enormities of heaven.
.
Those five trees across the way I named Pleiades—till
one more fell to earth—stand like fuzzy-tipped tom-tom
sticks. They could be in motion for the writhing irregul-
arities of their trunks but remain frozen where they’ve
stood all my days: that portion of the thousandth moon
I may yet gather in—further proof I might lay claim
to having been alive—should my luck remain.
.
Now a vagrant wind—
and we thought we’d seen the end
—comes around again.
.
for Campbell McGrath
copyright 2023 Sean Sexton
Sean Sexton’s books include Portals: Poems (Press 53, 2022). He divides his time between writing, painting, and managing a 700-acre cow-calf and seed stock operation in Florida.
Discover more from Vox Populi
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
EXCELLENT, SEAN.
THOSE VAGRANT WINDS….WHO KNOWS?
LikeLike
It’s nice to hear from you Dr. Palmer.
LikeLike
You rock my world!
Cathy Smith Bowers
LikeLike
Mine too!
>
LikeLike
ditto!
LikeLike
And you mine!
LikeLike
Oh that vagrant wind
LikeLike
“cattle mill in the green
out of scale with the enormities of heaven.” Such imagery! Such tone!
LikeLike
Our American bucolic poet!
>
LikeLiked by 1 person
From Basho to Campbell McGrath — maybe not as long a journey as it seems. Haibun remains a vigorous form in the hands of poets like these and Sean Sexton.
“Now a vagrant wind—
and we thought we’d seen the end
—comes around again.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well-said, Warren.
>
LikeLike
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Hammock_Ranch_Farmstead
LikeLike
This poem calls me back to my November residency at Vero Beach. Treasure Hammock Ranch is a piece of heaven! And what a blessing it is to be alive 🙌
“Below, like narrative panels
of a renaissance altarpiece, cattle mill in the green
out of scale with the enormities of heaven.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
So pleased you like it Laure-anne. How I adore you and your work!
LikeLike
How happy this makes me, Sean. Thank you, thank you!
LikeLike
Thankyou so much Lisa! You’re my sweetie pie! We loved having you here—even for a hurricane!
-Sean
LikeLiked by 1 person