Joseph Fasano
At Wolf Lake
When we have put away the ghosts and the roses,
when we have closed the doors to the houses
of shadows,
when we have shut away
the voices of the lost in us
like dark harps in their locked
and perfect velvet,
we can carry ourselves,
like dark craft, in our own hands.
I know a place
of good winds and shadows,
and went there, once, and left it for you, in the open.
If you go, by morning, by the old road,
if you go there by the only way
you’ve left you,
I have left, for you, an old boat in the shallows.
Lie down and let the waters take you.
I know, I know, I know: the ghosts
when we’re alone
are coldest music, but
if you listen, still, if you stay with it
and listen, if you make your way
past the snagged reeds
of the shallows, the new moon
like no one’s hands beside you,
if you make your way
through all that wildest
silence, lie back
on the waters of that ancient place,
the morning tossed
like dark oars on the far shores, the spruces blue
in the cold light of the moon.
Listen, listen, listen.
And then, when you are ready, in that wreckage,
when you have told yourself that nothing
is ever ready,
do it, drifter:
look down
in those waters; touch the face
of the stranger
who has taken you, the one life
that has guided you
in silence,
the one life
that has tried, through all the trials,
when you knelt down
in the coldest snows, with no one,
to tell you you were only passing through.
Joseph Fasano is the author of four books of poetry—Fugue for Other Hands (2013), Inheritance (2014), Vincent (2015), and The Crossing (2018)—and the novel The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing (Platypus Press, 2020). His honors include the Cider Press Review Book Award, The RATTLE Poetry Prize, six Pushcart Prize nominations, and a nomination for the Poets' Prize, "awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award year." He teaches at Manhattanville College and Columbia University, and he serves on the Editorial Board of Alice James Books. josephfasano.net
Return to July 2020 Edition
When we have put away the ghosts and the roses,
when we have closed the doors to the houses
of shadows,
when we have shut away
the voices of the lost in us
like dark harps in their locked
and perfect velvet,
we can carry ourselves,
like dark craft, in our own hands.
I know a place
of good winds and shadows,
and went there, once, and left it for you, in the open.
If you go, by morning, by the old road,
if you go there by the only way
you’ve left you,
I have left, for you, an old boat in the shallows.
Lie down and let the waters take you.
I know, I know, I know: the ghosts
when we’re alone
are coldest music, but
if you listen, still, if you stay with it
and listen, if you make your way
past the snagged reeds
of the shallows, the new moon
like no one’s hands beside you,
if you make your way
through all that wildest
silence, lie back
on the waters of that ancient place,
the morning tossed
like dark oars on the far shores, the spruces blue
in the cold light of the moon.
Listen, listen, listen.
And then, when you are ready, in that wreckage,
when you have told yourself that nothing
is ever ready,
do it, drifter:
look down
in those waters; touch the face
of the stranger
who has taken you, the one life
that has guided you
in silence,
the one life
that has tried, through all the trials,
when you knelt down
in the coldest snows, with no one,
to tell you you were only passing through.
Joseph Fasano is the author of four books of poetry—Fugue for Other Hands (2013), Inheritance (2014), Vincent (2015), and The Crossing (2018)—and the novel The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing (Platypus Press, 2020). His honors include the Cider Press Review Book Award, The RATTLE Poetry Prize, six Pushcart Prize nominations, and a nomination for the Poets' Prize, "awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award year." He teaches at Manhattanville College and Columbia University, and he serves on the Editorial Board of Alice James Books. josephfasano.net
Return to July 2020 Edition