Poem
                for Shirley

Isn't it here
in the unnamed
giving of light,
bodies of earth and water
lifted and taken
into the orbit of flesh;
isn't it the waking
of blood and bone
to another earthly presence
moving across the space
of a lighted window
as though it were
the universe;
isn't it the breaking
that sets free
the commingling of sane
and insane fragments
moments when the light
burns through
to the meek
suspension of air?

Copyright © 2010 Herbert Scott All rights reserved
from The Other Life: Selected Poems of Herbert Scott 1974-2005
Carnegie Mellon University Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission