Parting

Theodor Kittelsen

Parting 

 

Parting, I take with me completed June,
My treasury of time, hoarded intact;
Eventual winds will not dissolve a tune
Of solid air, the body of this fact.
Mind's acres are forever green: Oh, I
Shall keep perpetual summer here; I shall
Refuse to let one startled swallow die,
Or, from the copper beeches, one leaf fall. 

Here, vagrant from confusion, I shall greet
My youth immaculate in memory's urn;
This is my country, where the tireless feet
Of my adventure, homing, will return.
Each day will end in this day; every ship
Will bring me back, bright lip on lonely lip. 

Stanley Kunitz 

I was hoping I could get another "Green" poem in - and here it is! It was a wonderful summer, and I don't want to let it go, so I love how Kunitz talks about storing time up in a treasury. "Mind's acres are forever green...I shall keep perpetual summer here..." Yes, I can do that, I can keep it with me, in my mind. Or, in turn, I can go there, to "my country", "every ship will bring me back." I also am struck by that word "homing". I've never seen it used quite this way. Is that it - is it that we are all "homing" - looking for that green place and time we once were (or that we never have been but have always longed for), that essential place of life and growth and balance - that Eden Country we all belong to? How wonderful.

Stanley Kunitz writes exceptionally well about these in-between moments, looking back while committing to go on. I posted his poem "The Layers" on January 16, 2017, worth a re-read, if you ask me.