Ticking Time 
A wintry poem about loss and remembrance, and time.
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Ticking Time

Natalie Wilkinson reads her poem Persephone Descending as published in Scribe by editor Thomas Gaudex on Medium. (2024)

Persephone Descending - 10:6:24, 3.27 PM

from Breaking Open by Muriel Rukayser

How we live:
I look into my face in the square glass.
Under it, a bright flow of cold water.
In the night
In the night
In the night

In the night,
In the night,
In the night

At once, a strong arrangement of presences:
I am holding a small glass under the little flow
at Fern Spring, among the western forest.
A cool flaw among the silence.
The taste of the waterfall.

The waterfall 
The waterfall
The waterfall

In the night
wandering room to room of this world I move by touch and then something says let the city pour the sleep of the beloved Let the night pour down all its meanings
Let the images pour the light is dreaming

The light is dreaming 
The light
Is dreaming
Dreaming
Dreaming
The light

In The Night

I saw you toss the kites on high,
And blow the birds about the sky;
And all around I heard you pass,
Like skirts that rustle through the grass.

Chorus
O wind, you sing a wilder song,
A-blowing fierce and free and long!
You hide your face but show your might—
Oh, teach me how to fly tonight!

Verse 2
I felt you push, I heard you call,
Your secrets whispered through the wall.
You move the world but stay unseen,
A ghost in shades of gold and green.

Chorus
O wind, you sing a wilder song,
A-blowing fierce and free and long!
You hide your face but show your might—
Oh, teach me how to fly tonight!

Bridge
Are you the breath of storm-born nights?
Or dawn’s first sigh in fading light?
The sailor’s curse, the seed’s first cry—
The earth’s own voice against the sky?

Chorus
O wind, you sing a wilder song,
A-blowing fierce and free and long!
You hide your face but show your might—
Oh, teach me how to fly tonight!

Outro
O wind... a-blowing all day long...
O wind... that sings so loud a song...
(Whistling melody; soft percussion)

O Wind!

I am a short-story writer, poet, novelist, food writer and photographer whose work has appeared in periodicals, and anthologies. A Pinch of Coriander Trilogy is my latest work.

I'm reading my words. I wanted to share them with you.

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