Winter SignLoren EisleyStar Thrower
A spider web pulled tight between two stonesWeb is still tight, but bare of food,
With nothing left but autumn leaves to catchonly leaves are caught in it
Is maybe a winter sign, or the thin blue bones
Of a hare picked clean by ants. A man can attachMan might see signs in the world
Meanings enough to the wind when his luck is out,But looking at this bare web
But, having stumbled into this season of grief,Makes life important now
I mean to reflect on the life that is here and aboutNot focusing on death
In the fall of leaves—not on the dying leaf.
Something more tough, reliable and starkThinking of life makes the subject of
Carries the blood of life toward a farther spring—love come forward to be discussed
Something that lies concealed in the soundless darkLove can be strong and secretive
Of burr and pod, in the seeds that hook and sting.Hidden like things in nature can hide
I have learned from these that love which endures the nightAnd thinking of all this,
May smolder in outward death while the colors blaze,trust love because it can be strong and
But trust my love—it is small, burr-coated, and tight.True and last throughout
It will stick to the bone. It will last through the autumn days.The tough times.
The Spider
His science has progressed past stone,Progressed past the stone age?
His strange and dark geometries,Patterns of his webs
Impossible to flesh and bone,Web cannot be fleshed out
Revive upon the passing breezeCan build again in the wind
The house the blundering foot destroys.After man has destroyed it.
Indifferent to what is lostSpider doesn’t care what is lost
He trusts the wind and yet employsThe elements help his web
The jeweled stability of frost.And when others are broken by
Foundations buried underfootunderground problems
Are forfeit to the mole and wormSpiders dream and trust in wind
But spiders know it and will put
Their trust in airy dreams more firm
Than any rock and raise from the dew
Frail stairs the careless wind blows through.