Coming east we left the animals
pelican beaver osprey muskrat and snake
their hair and skin and feathers
their eyes in the dark: red and green.
Your finger drawing my mouth.
Blessed are they who remember
that what they now have they once longed for.
A day a year ago last summer
God filled me with himself, like gold, inside,
deeper inside than marrow.
This close to God this close to you:
walking into the river at Wolf with
the animals. The snake’s
green skin, lit from inside. Our second life.
“The River at Wolf” from The River at Wolf. Copyright © 1992 by Jean Valentine. Reprinted with the permission of Alice James Books.
Source:
The River at Wolf (Alice James Books, 1992)
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Poet
Jean Valentine
b. 1934
POET’S REGION
U.S., Mid-Atlantic
Subjects
Animals,
Relationships,
Nature,
Marriage & Companionship,
Seas, Rivers, & Streams,
Love,
Living,
Religion,
God & the Divine,
Romantic Love
Holidays
Valentine's Day