The Moon
by Hayden Carruth
Reflected light reflected again on snow
but beauty is lonely lonely The snowsurface
is hard gleaming vitrescent blue
without crest or crevice
extending beyond anywhere for long ago
the horizon crumbled in an indeterminate glow
and the night has stillness Light
that is fragile paleolithic white
from this fossilshell embedded in a sky of shale
conveys a snowgleaming
track for the solitary on and on a trail
of his sole desperation climbing
the world of pure beauty Remote and high
a real light shimmers an upland farmstead shining
or only a star in the unhorizoned sky.
[from Contra Mortem (1967): Copper Canyon Press]
Copyright © 1967, Hayden Carruth.
Reproduced for personal use only: do not circulate.