The shroud has no pockets, the northern Italians say.
Let go, live your life,
the grave has no sunny corners—
Deadfall and windfall, the aphoristic undertow
Of high water, deep snow in the hills,
Everything's benediction, bright wingrush of grange.
Spring moves through the late May heat
as though someone were poling it.
Copyright © 2006 by Charles Wright, Scar Tissue, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
High Country Canticle
Charles Wright