Doug Roy, Goats on the Hill, Cut Paper
the broom weaver
every trade has its season
reaping time is mine
the golden honeyed hush
when gathering is done
when fields return to fawny
stubble, and wives shake
straw from aprons, shirts
and pillow slips — from days
and dreams of winnowing
when sun slants copper light
and blessings over knife
and twine, needle, vise
and the reedy, seedy bales
of rye I rake and snake, twist
and spin into bristly peacock
fans, gilded quills, rays of sun
caught and bound by braided
string and binding verse to hickory
switch – bark stripped and sanded
smooth as June
arrow-straight, a comet streak
a magic wand turning thatch
and chaff to order and calm
a tool of hearth and hand
to stir ash and dust and spider lace
all the brilliant remains
of fallen stars
_____________
Lucinda Trew
Review by Rick Adang
This poem is stunning. It reminds me of Hopkins in its meditative, incantatory quality. It is a treat for the ears (assonance, alliteration, slant rhymes, true rhymes). I hesitate to give examples because every line is beautifully crafted, and it’s a shame to leave any image out. But okay, some I particularly liked: “the golden honeyed hush”, “fawny / stubble”, “reedy, seedy bales”. And I love the way it so smoothly flows from the simple to the exotic: “rye I rake and snake, twist / and spin into bristly peacock / fans, gilded quills, rays of sun.” Although every line is beautifully crafted, it never seems over-written; the poem flows smoothly from line to line.
Because of the beauty of the language, the poem takes what might otherwise be a too inflated ending, and uses it to expand the poem satisfyingly: “to stir ash and dust and spider lace / all the brilliant remains / of fallen stars.”
Review by Bruce Parker
This and the previous poem by Lucinda Trew are quite lovely.