He will build a hill in his yard
like a testament to his desire;
it will rise above eaves
and a rift will divide the mound
to tempt his eye in a mortal way.
Buried at its heart is a concrete maze
harboring ess curves and ladders
with egress between scrambled boulders
and briar warnings --
a cave of wonder, of mirth,
cold repast and chance meetings.
Like sticks from a distance
the trees grow and comfort mantled dust;
all around gravel paths and terraced lawns,
the clutching shrubs
and look-at-me blooms
blanket his hill, piled high
by a thousand shovels and one,
his own.
Morning he will climb
just to meet warmth at dawn,
claim a solitary rock
pulled against gravity
rolled for an eon from the frozen North
and now resting here
alee,
he bathes in light.
Alone on a hill,
he sees for miles;
amid the whole
a part of all
or nothing.
like a testament to his desire;
it will rise above eaves
and a rift will divide the mound
to tempt his eye in a mortal way.
Buried at its heart is a concrete maze
harboring ess curves and ladders
with egress between scrambled boulders
and briar warnings --
a cave of wonder, of mirth,
cold repast and chance meetings.
Like sticks from a distance
the trees grow and comfort mantled dust;
all around gravel paths and terraced lawns,
the clutching shrubs
and look-at-me blooms
blanket his hill, piled high
by a thousand shovels and one,
his own.
Morning he will climb
just to meet warmth at dawn,
claim a solitary rock
pulled against gravity
rolled for an eon from the frozen North
and now resting here
alee,
he bathes in light.
Alone on a hill,
he sees for miles;
amid the whole
a part of all
or nothing.
7 comments:
"to tempt his eye in a mortal way."
wow Tom,
wow!
super duper art
thanks for sharing this.
ps...your slideshow rocks!
nice drop of the rock n roll there in that stanza...i stand on the hill just to look...great piece tom
I like the heroic project in the back yard. Wallace Stevens wrote a poem, on the occasion of being promoted to Vice President of the Hartford, about the pleasure of having one's own private outcropping on the side of a mountain.
yes--my current fantasy involves building a humongous hill in my back yard. i need to purchase several acres and bulldoze a bunch of houses first.
Sitting there waiting for spring perhaps? Come on over, you can build one in the horse paddock but you're not burying my garden tools. And that's final.
I've been going to that Rilke site and he was awfully distracted with aloneness to get to the truth and to be apart of the all. I suppose it's what we do, no matter how together we might appear. There's always that inward search, and sometimes if we're lucky we've got a good hill.
xo
erin
a good hill is is in my thoughts--for sure it's not in my backyard. can't have everything, right?
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