Change / Raymond Knister

Change

I shall not wonder more, then,
But I shall know.

Leaves change, and birds, flowers,
And after years are still the same.

The sea's breast heaves in sighs to the moon,
But they are moon and sea forever.

As in other times the trees stand tense and lonely,
And spread a hollow moan of other times.

You will be you yourself,
I'll find you more, not else,
For vintage of the woeful years.

The sea breathes, or broods, or loudens,
Is bright or is mist and the end of the world;
And the sea is constant to change.

I shall not wonder more, then,
But I shall know.

~~
Raymond Knister (1899-1932)
from The Midland, December 1922

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Raymond Knister biography

February's Forgotten Mitts / Raymond Knister

February's Forgotten Mitts

Shep lies long-bodied upon the auburn grass –
It has been dried in the glance of the sudden sun.
As you pass he wrinkes a sideward eye to the astounding blue of heaven.
Half a mile away the year's first cackling of hens, aroused from the cold.
The fields and roads rejoice in slithering mud over the frost.

Somewhere a well-clear, golden echo of children's voices crying and calling.
After dinner Pete looks around for his mitts.
He has lost them about the barn this morning;
Spring has flung forward an unringed hand.

~~
Raymond Knister (1899-1932)
from The Midland, December 1922

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Raymond Knister biography

The Quiet Snow / Raymond Knister

The Quiet Snow

The quiet snow
Will splotch
Each in the row of cedars
With a fine
And patient hand;
Numb the harshness,
Tangle of that swamp.
It does not say, The sun
Does these things another way.

Even on hats of walkers,
The air of noise
And street-car ledges
It does not know
There should be hurry.

~~
Raymond Knister (1899-1932)
from Collected Poems, 1949

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the European Union]

Raymond Knister biography

Amir Chebil, Cedar forest in snow, 2019. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.

The Hawk / Raymond Knister

The Hawk

Across the bristled and sallow fields,
The speckled stubble of cut clover,
Wades your shadow.
Or against a grimy and tattered
Sky
You plunge.
Or you shear a swath
From the trembling tiny forests
With the steel of your wings
Or make a row of waves
By the heat of your flight
Along the soundless horizon.

---
Raymond Knister (1889-1932)
from Poetry, April 1924

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the European Union]

Raymond Knister biography

Boy Remembers in the Field / Raymond Knister

Boy Remembers in the Field

What if the sun comes out
And the new furrows do not look smeared?

This is April, and the sumach candles
Have guttered long ago.
The crows in the twisted apple limbs
Are as moveless and dark.

Drops on the wires, cold cheeks,
The mist, the long snorts, silence . . .
The horses will steam when the sun comes;
Crows go, shrieking.

Another bird now; sweet . . .
Pitiful life, useless,
Innocently creeping
On a useless planet
Again.

If any voice called, I would hear?
It has been the same before.
Soil glistens, the furrow rolls, sleet shifts, brightens.

~~
Raymond Knister (1899-1932)
1923

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the European Union]

Raymond Knister biography