Poetry Magazine
The Shadow
One spring day I saw
the shadow of a strawberry tree
lying on the moor
like a shy lamb asleep.
Its heart was far away,
suspended in the sky,
brown in a brown veil,
in the sun’s eye.
The shadow played in the wind,
moving there alone
to make the tree content.
Here and there it shone.
It knew no pain, no haste,
wanting only to feel morning,
then noon, then the slow-paced
journey of evening.
Among all the shadows always
joining eternal shadow,
shrouding the earth in falseness,
I loved this steady shadow.
And thus, at times, it descends
among us, this meek semblance,
and lies down, as if drained,
in grass and in patience.
Carlo Betocchi, Tutte le poesie, © Garzanti Editore spa, 1996.
Source: Poetry (March 2010).
Poem Categorization
SUBJECT Living, Time & Brevity
Poetic Terms Free Verse
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