March Day: Windy

March Day: Windy

1This day you wonder, finding nowhere quite
2What you expect to find. The strident air
3Surrounds you like a sea of sweeping light;
4The hills and fields return you stare for stare.
5Humpbacked and grim, the giant juniper
6Bows down to scowl; across the crawling grass
7Beyond, where the twin Balm o’Gileads were,
8Two strangers halt and stiffen as you pass.
9Something is altered here. The difference
10Between you and the blowing world is thinned.
11You turn to face the house, and common sense,
12And see a woman shouldering the wind.
13Turn to the barn, and see an old man leaning,
14Intent, to hear those droning syllables –
15Those phrases harsh and high, and wild with meaning,
16Of shouted sound from granite-throated hills.
RPO poem Editors
Jim Johnstone
RPO Edition
2015
Special Copyright

Poem used with permission of the Charles Bruce Estate.