Rock, juniper, and wind,
And a sea gull sitting still –
All these of one mind.
He who finds will
To come home
Will surely find old faith
Made new again,
And lavish welcome.
Old things breaketh
New, when heart and soul
Lose no whit of old refrain;
It is a smiling festival
When rock, juniper, and wind
Are of one mind;
a sea gull signs the bond
Makes what was broken, whole.
Marsden Hartley was born in Lewiston in 1877, and grew up there. Later he lived in New York City where he became one of America’s best-known modernist painters, and also wrote poems and essays. He spent most of his later years working in Maine, and died in Ellsworth in 1943. This poem is reprinted by permission of Yale University.
Comments
comments for this post are closed