Page 72 - WTP Vol.IX #3
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caRol haMilton
Wheels Within the Wheels
“In life there is not time to grieve long...” — T. S. Eliot
This morning’s darkness squeals at the turn of the attic ventilators
Yet only yesterday I stood in early sun yanking and wrenching the vines
Of the autumn sweet clematis
that grew up over the spent lilac bush
Unnoticed. I did not clear it all away before my arms and shoulders and spine
Called as sharply as this dawn’s harsh music. Though I planned
Another fierce attack on this coiling intruder for today, what is left has been granted
A reprieve. And I do not ask why
icy winds return, scouring and sweeping
The landscape of all that is verdant.
I do not ask why our hearts break or sink
Into submission and hunker down. It is the fleetness of our losses
That we, over and over, do not understand.
Hamilton is a former Poet Laureate of Oklahoma, and a retired educa- tor whose career included both elementary and college-level teaching. She’s the author of 17 books, including children’s novels and poetry. Among her literary honors are a Southwest Book Award, an Oklahoma Book Award, the David Ray Poetry Prize, the Warren Keith Poetry Award, and a Chiron Review Chapbook Award.
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