Chapter 23 - The Frirst Beheading of the Jasmine

Pillow by Li-Young Lee

There's nothing I can't find under there.
Voices in the trees, the missing pages
of the sea.

Everything but sleep.

And night is a river bridging
the speaking and listening banks,

a fortress, undefended and inviolate.

There's nothing that won't fit under it:
fountains clogged with mud and leaves,
the houses of my childhood.

And night begins when my mother's fingers
let go of the thread
they've been tying and untying
to touch toward our fraying story's hem.

Night is the shadow of my father's hands
setting the clock for resurrection.

Or is it the clock unraveled, the numbers flown?

There's nothing that hasn't found home there:
discarded wings, lost shoes, a broken alphabet.

Everything but sleep. And night begins

with the first beheading
of the jasmine, its captive fragrance
rid at last of burial clothes.

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Links:
I Wept Not - Chapter 23

Li-Young Lee - Wikipedia
An Interview with Li-Young Lee by Carolyn Alterio
Songwriters on Process - Li-Young Lee, Poet
Blue Flower Arts - Li-Young Lee
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