White Asters at Candlewood, and: Orpheus and Eurydice: Revising the Old Story
- White Asters at Candlewood, and: Orpheus and Eurydice: Revising the Old Story
White Asters at Candlewood
for Julia
Some say we shouldn’t give human traits to nonhuman things.Don’t listen! These trees are green yellowed with exhaustion,
the look of sadness. It’s the end of September,time for words like torpor, jaundice, sicklied o’er,
but wild asters in bridal dress bring back spring,eyes purplish brown inside ruffles—modesty rules.
Blooms too small for shadows turn the lakesidewhite and flicker like chance whispers. [End Page 507]
Orpheus and Eurydice: Revising the Old Story
In Gluck’s opera the hero crosses River Styx to rescue Eurydice.His backward look will kill her, but he can’t resist. Yet she lives!
Rodin dreams his version in marble, the girl so close behind the boyher breath melts into him. They’re naked. Who wouldn’t look back!
She’s as white as apple flesh—breast against his back, arm resting on his.When museum lights shut down, highlights shine like moonstruck ice.
My night sinks into black and floats up to the moon’s eclipse.Morning, there’s one star that has not returned.
My prayers for you are tender—and hopeless. I have no power.In dreams you’re standing by my bed, the Gate of No Return opens its warm mouth.
If we hear Orpheus sing, we’ll touch again and sigh into the dark moist with tears. [End Page 508]
miriam levine’s The Dark Opens won the Autumn House Poetry Prize. Her other books include three poetry collections; a memoir, Devotion; a novel, In Paterson; as well as A Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England. She is the poet laureate of Arlington, Massachusetts.
