Judith HallA Book Cut and Left in the Forest
Every year some of them ran into the forest And every year the paths went but a little way Where little dangers lingered and little else The leaves were bitten by infants and crickets And soon the air changed in the spider web And they ran out dizzy nearly lovers Having found if not wisdom someone else The soldier found the yellow pig frightened Into goodness and the forlorn little pony the spy Everyone was laughing in the sunlight Telling their years if not years their equivalents Their isolations in the forest and of the fragrance That spread down branch by stranger branch Until they were sweeter with evergreen than even heaven Not everyone is revolted by sweetness One of them said grabbing the forlorn little pony And going toward the mountain where the people died Suddenly the forest seemed not so bad You sang lifting a book from under the wet leaves Let us read over here yes let us read Back beneath the trees listen for a minute It was natural to rest the earth rests The others left and you and I were reading Mostly little apocryphal parts on what was eaten What drunk in God's festive presence Peaches and white pepper excellent wine The brains of enemies preserved in wine Let us cut the end out of the book And take it hide it now for when we most need The one improbable vague hope that frees You helped me cut the end out of the book You helped me hold the glass knife You helped me hide the end unread in the shawl And in that way did we begin the final journey Among the absences you mentioned in the dark The forest began its sweetness with absence And yet the leaves becoming pieces stains A consequent sweet smell inevitably are not Analogous are they to the slow release in sadism Of the sentimental as God lifts a glass and it sings
Judith Hall is the author of four books of poetry, including the forthcoming Three Trios (2006). She has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She serves as poetry editor of The Antioch Review and teaches at the California Institute of Technology and with the core faculty of the graduate writing program at New England College.
