Memory of Winds / A Wind Stirring

Willard Maas
March 1934: Address to the Heart at the Lake's Edge

Memory of Winds

Listen, Heart, O Time’s red furious clock,
Securely lodged within your cage of bone!
The waves beat frantic wings against the rock,
But do not fear, my Heart, we are alone.
You have betrayed me your three times and more
To send me kneeling sick upon the ground,
Crying my love out to the moon-bright shore,
Only to rise at length to face a pond
Whereon no star rests, no white plume is thrown
Across the stricken earth’s contorted ice.
Stay with me, Heart, until the flesh is blown
Into the dust’s sweet loss. Betray me trice,
Twenty times three, but when a bird wheels south,
Send me running wild with songs upon my mouth!

A wind stirring

Heart, thunder light,
The bird of her breast is peeping!
The thorn of fire we found
Under a stony garden wall.

Time will make garlands
Of our arms for singing.
Our words were a memory of winds
Stirring leaves, tree branches.

The moon heaves up
Continents of water,
And the ship of our thoughts
Embarks on a sea-blue voyage.

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Source: Poetry Foundation. About the author. Image-1: © N/A; Image-2: Dawn Camble
AWIP: https://a-w-i-p.com/index.php/poetry/2025/03/04/memory-of-winds-a-wind-stirring