Chard deNiord: To the Muse

You wakened me to a dream of waking 

in which I approached you and sang 

your name. When I heard it again in the clouds 

and river and trees I remembered the silence 

in the sound of your name when you were here, 

as if I were saying it with a voice in my head 

that you could also hear and I was listening 

for both of us, as you were, too, 

and it didn’t matter which since it resounded 

between us as we stood in a meadow, 

both separate and together, fully involved 

in musical flames that accompanied our voices 

in crimson robes with holes at their center 

that were also their mouths.

Copyright 2023 Chard deNiord

Chard deNiord’s many books include In My Unknowing (Pitt, 2020). He served as Poet Laureate of Vermont (2015-2019).