Twilight--and you...

El Beso

by Angelina Weld Grimké

 

Twilight--and you 

Quiet--the stars; 

Snare of the shine of your teeth, 

Your provocative laughter, 

The gloom of your hair; 

Lure of you, eye and lip; 

Yearning, yearning, 

Languor, surrender; 

Your mouth, 

And madness, madness, 

Tremulous, breathless, flaming, 

The space of a sigh; 

Then awakening--remembrance, 

Pain, regret--your sobbing; 

And again, quiet--the stars, 

Twilight--and you.

Belief

In This Season of Waiting

by Linda Pastan

Under certain conditions,
when the moon in the western sky
seems frozen there, for instance

even as the sun is rising in the east,
so that soon two sides of the coin
will be facing each other;

or when the snow
which is a stranger here
fills our trees with its cold flowers;

when the single
bluejay at the feeder
is so still

it could be enameled there,
then the earth becomes an emblem
for whatever we believe.