Two Poems

by Sharon Dolin

DUET OF TREE HOUSE AND RAIN
(7:30 a.m.)

Drench me (wood-shingled) »
                                                                   I will sing You a downpour

Timber-hewn I rest upon ruined boughs »
                                                                  I am married to the wind

From my half-moon window »
                                                                  Give songbirds respite

Nothing brings peace »
                                                                   Lure forth prayer-whispers

Like drops falling upon »
                                                                  In the bulls eye of morning

Nor a reminder of the miracle of »
                                                                 Flinging myself upon the world

As though inside the tent flaps »                  I enter   

                                              Still a wanderer » Seep in
I have fenced my heart »                                  
                                                                 « Herringboned the sun

Help me raze the pickets
                                                                 Recumbent moon

Zithered in brambles leaves drop 
                                                                 « Pond a grey sheet

Their notes upon me
                                                                 « I keep adding on bars

Though You put out fires
                                                                 « There is a shiver at the center

Of the rainstick world
                                                                 Who hasn’t begged You for a pause
Who hasn’t prayed for more? »

PSALM OF MORNING MIST

Upon my tongue            pond
                                                      (upon Gitim    inchworm)
Upon wind chimes         Ruby Meadowhawk
                                                                        (upon trumpetfish net)
 Upon Machalas           mimosa
                                                                 (upon guitar          sand bar)
Upon bagpipes                        red pine
                                                                  (upon piping plover          banjo)
Upon sitar         sea star
                                            (upon lute      hooks)
Upon flute          float
                                        (woodnote      upon my throat)
Upon oriole        aureole
                                             (upon oud      spruce)
Upon zither      vetiver
                                             (Theremin      upon yawn)
Upon neginos         cumulous
                                                       (upon gu zheng      black-eyed Susan)
Upon trout      sackbut
                                               (gong        upon bullfrog)
Upon gamelan      quahog
                                                  (ukele   upon katydid)
Upon koto      sparrow
                                             (upon stones      bandoneon)
Upon hummingbird     tabor
                                                        (kookaburra      upon didjeridoo)
Wind       upon      bullroarer
                                                       (green heron      upon steel drum)
Upon mosquito        mandolin
                                                          (upon slipper shell      cello)
Upon pickerel weed
                                 Upon Japanese maple       (upon      upon)
Upon razor clam        kalimba
                                                   (upon humpback whale      Hallel)
Upon morning dew        kazoo
                                                  (mouth harp      upon carp)
Holy! Holy! Holy!
                              Praise! Praise!

Sharon Dolin won the AWP 2007 Donald Hall Prize in Poetry for her poetry book Burn and Dodge (University of Pittsburgh Press, fall 2008). She is the author of three previous books of poems, most recently: Realm of the Possible and Serious Pink. She teaches poetry at Eugene Lang College and the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The two poems published here are part of a sequence called Of Hours: A Contemporary Book of Hours, which is based on Ellen Wiener’s paintings, An Album of Hours, some of which may be found at: http://www.ellenwiener.com/album.htm.

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