Liturgy: Visiting P.K.

Liturgy: Visiting P.K.

Original Text

Bruce Meyer, A Book of Bread (Holstein, Ontario: Exile Editions, 2011): 66-67.

There is a woman floating in a window
Transparent
Christmas wreaths in passing houses
Shine now in eye and now in hair, in heart.
-- P.K. Page, "Reflection in a Train Window"
1There is a woman floating in a window,
2and light through Venetian blinds
3transforms her into bars of music,
4mystical and almost transparent.
6Victoria buried by a sudden snow,
7her garden city is a Christmas world.
8The kettle boiled, she wets the tea
9and through steam and filigree shadow
10there is a woman floating in a window.
11Transparent --
12that is the word I want to give to her,
13the way light makes poetry of her face,
14the eyes that remind me of an icon,
15hair that reflects the soft voice of angelic
16nuances hidden in language crafted with an accent
18of Glass music filling the house
19like wind chimes making the dissonant
20transparent --
21Christmas wreaths in passing houses
22my cab passed on the way here this day
23are lifebuoys in a sea of sudden snows
24and not entirel;y out of place among
27of Modern verse, and where retired
28inspirations go as if a poet ever said no
29to what she could hold on to; seasons, causes,
30Christmas wreaths in passing houses ...
31Shine now in eye and now in hair, in heart
32that memory should set you in the window there,
33a winter sun making you even more serene,
34more of what I remember now -- the snow --
35flecking your steel-grey hair, shining
36trees bent beneath their weight, the subtle start
37to a new year, perhaps another poem.
38Thank God memory is an ageless place
40shine now in eye and now in hair, in heart.

Notes

5] Philip Glass: minimalist American composer (1937-). Back to Line
17] dithyrambic: ecstatic, wild classical Greek vese form. Back to Line
25] Preview: in March 1942 Canadian poet Patrick Anderson (1915-79) and Montreal Group poet F.R. Scott founded the Montreal literary magazine Preview. Back to Line
26] Judith Cape: pseudonym of Canadian poet P.K. Page. Back to Line
39] glosa: medieval Spanish poetic form that opens with a quatrain from another poet and has four ten-line stanzas (in each of which the sixth and ninth lines rhyme with the tenth, the line taken -- in order -- from that quatrain). Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
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Copyright © Bruce Meyer. Printed by permission of the author. Any other use, including reproduction for any purposes, educational or otherwise, will require explicit written permission from the poet.