Thickening the path with leaf rot.
Naked limbs of Ash, stripped by downy mildew,
tap coded insults
on the cottage roof.
Inside, albino spiders
sentry the walls
with mazes of webs.
Here, miles from Wayzata,
we make love on the bed you have loved on before.
We sleep
and in your dream
she walks the beach,
tempting the tide to take her.
billowing with a passion
that is not her own,
she becomes the wave,
surging
through the engorged channel
toward the cabin,
teasing,
licking the edges,
nipping the trusses.
When we wake,
the air is dank
with her name.
It seeps between the eaves,
through the floorboards,
driving us outside.
It is too cold to swim
and every direction we walk,
the wind is against us.
In another place,
the day will be warm
and the evening full.
We will have cool drinks
and sit on a porch
listening to crickets, who,
only when the heat
is most intense,
sing of love.
© 2009 by Kathryn Feigal. All rights reserved.
I studied poetry with Mark Strand at the University of Utah. This is one of the poems I wrote in his workshop.
(see some of his poetry here)
Mark Strand was born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada. His collections of poems include: Dark Harbor (1993), The Continuous Life (1990), Selected Poems (1980), The Late Hour (1978), The Story of our Lives (1973), The Sargentville Notebook (1973), Darker (1970), Reasons For Moving (1968), and Sleeping With One Eye Open (1964). He has also published a book of prose, entitled The Monument (1978). His books on artists include William Bailey (1987) and Hopper (1994). His translations include two volumes of the poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade. He has also published three books for children. He has been the recipient of Fellowships from the Ingram Merrill, Rockefeller, and Guggenheim Foundations and from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has been awarded the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets (1979), a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award (1987), the Bollingen Prize (1993), and has served as Poet Laureate of the United States (1990). He is currently the Elliott Coleman Professor of Poetry in the Writing Seminars at the Johns Hopkins. (translation into German from an earlier draft)
Grün See
Du bringst mir zu Grün See,
wo du in frührern Sommern
mit eine andern Frau gewohnt hast.
Der dunkele Himmel liegt schwer auf uns
wie eine muffige Wolldecke
bedeckt mit Hülse vergangenen Lebens.
Borkekäferen zerrütten die Ulme
und Netzen von Blattfäulnis,
den Weg verdickend.
Auf dem Hüttendach, klopfen Nackte Lindenäste
ihre Beleidigungen heraus.
Drinnen, albino Spinnen mit labyrinthischen Geweben,
bewachen die Wände.
Hier, Meilen von der Welt entfernt,
erfüllten wir die gegenseitige Sehnsucht
an dem selben Bett,
wo du mit ihr gelegen hattest.
In deinem Schlaf,
schlendert sie den Strand entlang,
und fordernt die Wellen,
sie hinunter zu ziehen.
Mit fremder wogender Leidenschaft
verwandelte sie sich
in eine Mächtige Welle.
Die Welle Wälzt ihre Fluten dir zu,
wo du liegst, voller Sehnsuchts
um ein Überfluss Wasser.
Die kursierte durch deinen Leib
erreichte die Hütte beleckend
die Klinke versuchend.
Als wir aufwachen hat sich
der Himmel seine Enttäuschung entladen,
und der See murmelt seufzend.
Zum Schwimmen ist's zu kalt
und in jeder Richtung ist
der Wind gagen uns.
Ich verlange von der Luft,
sich zu verzehren
verbrannt zu werden.
Ich will, dass die Liebesperlen meine Wunde heilen.
In noch einem Ort, zu noch einer Zeit
wird der Tag bequem sein
und der Abend befriedigend.
Wir werden kühle Getränke schlürfen
und an die Veranda sitzen,
die Grille zu hören
als sie in der wärmende Luft
von Liebe singen.
© 2009 by Kathryn Feigal. All rights reserved.
Mark Strand was born in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada. His collections of poems include: Dark Harbor (1993), The Continuous Life (1990), Selected Poems (1980), The Late Hour (1978), The Story of our Lives (1973), The Sargentville Notebook (1973), Darker (1970), Reasons For Moving (1968), and Sleeping With One Eye Open (1964). He has also published a book of prose, entitled The Monument (1978). His books on artists include William Bailey (1987) and Hopper (1994). His translations include two volumes of the poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade. He has also published three books for children. He has been the recipient of Fellowships from the Ingram Merrill, Rockefeller, and Guggenheim Foundations and from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has been awarded the Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets (1979), a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award (1987), the Bollingen Prize (1993), and has served as Poet Laureate of the United States (1990). He is currently the Elliott Coleman Professor of Poetry in the Writing Seminars at the Johns Hopkins.
