I have been one,

I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.

I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.

I have passed by the watchman on his beat

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry

Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;

And further still at an unearthly height,

O luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.

"I have been one acquainted with the night"

From Robert Frost's, New Hampshire, 1923

I'd have liked to see the bluebirds fly

Above the white, chalk-cliffs of Dover;

And while blithely soaring over,

Immersed in thought I'd lie

In calm repose upon that beach,

Admiring those swooping forms,

In evanescent, fleeting storms,

Like ballet...far beyond my reach.

Frisking, fragile, carefree birds,

Symbolic in intrinsic meaning --

Like liberty and freedom's words

In English springs, forever greening:

While England fought her bitter fight

To hold at bay the 'fall of night.'

© by Jim Dunlap, 2003

* Editor's note: suffice it to say, this deeply disturbing sonnet reminds me so very much of one of my all-time favourite poems, which I first read in high school, at about the age of 16.  Even then, Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" moved me almost to tears.  To this very day, I adore Arnold's Elegy, with which this exquisite sonnet holds spiritual hands.   It is quite clear to me that Jim Dunlap's sonnet is inspired by Arnold.  If anyone is in doubt, hear this:

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)

Dover Beach

The sea is calm to-night.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits;--on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! ....

I simply never tire of quoting this masterpiece of English literature.  To read Arnold's Elegaic Lament in its entirety, please click on the banner below (University of Toronto) :

SYMBOLS IN FLIGHT:  1941 *

Tom Thomson (1877-1917).  Group of Seven

(Canada) Sunlight on Snow

Glitches of Winter

Severity of shocking season shakes

the praise of winter's snow with steaming heaps

of peeled-off clothes, sports hills of icy lakes.

Days of wind whipped ascerbations, bus creeps;

slip and slide, gripe of length of scarves angles

shifts balance and bedecks snow-bound angels

falling patterned into sketchings, slither

hither with the sleet of stinging blizzards

icy sheath.  Snow forts carved with rosy cheek,

laughter rings as skates go white and zinging

crystals twist with falling flakes, soft and sleek;

sparkle unerased by hushness ringing.

Slipping, sliding, cars go gliding, ditches

width newly seeking victims of glitches.

© by Erin Moen 2003

His air-raid siren and coronation march

splatter down a flat staircase that rises

in the northeast and sets, bouncing,

off three high-rise dormitories

and the two silos with matching overpasses.

Notes drop exactly into the Circle

as His sixth of sprints wake an acolyte

who hugs Him and blinks, right-right-left,

while they waltz in C sharp minor,

while His eye, a low-slung equilateral

triangle of a pyramid, freezes open

to protect drivers and wishers on whiskey.

He trips over a step, and speaks,

for the first time, his last words.

© by Jeff Kilpatrick 111 2003

Coronation Orchid