Love in the Weather’s Bells

By Jay Wright b. 1935 Jay Wright

Snow hurries

the strawberries

from the bush.

Star-wet water rides

you into summer,

into my autumn.

Your cactus hands

are at my heart again.

Lady, I court

my dream of you

in lilies and in rain.

I vest myself

in your oldest memory

and in my oldest need.

And in my passion

you are the deepest blue

of the oldest rose.

Star circle me an axe.

I cannot cut myself

from any of your emblems.

It will soon be cold here,

and dark here;

the grass will lie flat

to search for its spring head.

I will bow again

in the winter of your eyes.

If there is music,

it will be the weather's bells

to call me to the abandoned chapel

of your simple body.

Jay Wright, “Love in the Weather’s Bells” from Transfigurations: Collected Poems (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000). Copyright © 2000 by Jay Wright. Reprinted with the permission of the author.

Source: Transfigurations: Collected Poems (Louisiana State University Press, 2000)

Biography

Frequently described as a “poet’s poet,” Jay Wright has quietly built an impressive career as one of America’s leading African-American voices. His work, praised for its evocative language, introspective tone, and mythological imagery, has won many honors, including the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships, and Yale’s prestigious Bollingen Prize. Wright’s plays, essays, and poetry generally . . .

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