"I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms"
----Wallace Stevens
"Thirteen Ways of Looking at Blackbird"
Cather Chandler
Catherine Chandler was born in New York City and raised in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Educated at Wilkes and McGill Universities, she currently lectures in Spanish at the Department of Translation Studies, McGill University, where she also holds an administrative position. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Catherine’s poems and translations have been published or are forthcoming in numerous journals, magazines, anthologies and websites in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.
Catherine Chandler
O
The moon is full again. A latticed frost
clings
to my window, while the crystal crust
of Lac St-Louis glows as if
embossed
with pearls this February night. It must
be twenty-five
below. I search for words
of warmth the Guaraní alone must know
to
trace their land of butterflies and birds
I made my own a mere four
weeks ago.
The moon, immutable, goes on and on,
through human
inconsistency and pride,
to reverence the rising sun each dawn
and
keep her promise to the ocean tide.
My question, this indifferent
night, is how
I’ll muddle through to spring, one month from
now.
www.lucidrhythyms.com
© 2008 David Landrum