Lesley Wheeler
Tone Problem
Low-down ground by the stream acts joyful.
Bluebells, trillium? Get out of town with your frilled
carillon. Pink Moon, Grass Moon, Egg Moon,
there’s no call to fling brilliance in this
of all springs. I can’t even with such beauty.
Can’t explain to the sweet-breathed lilac.
No words for love-crazed blue jays,
for the cat slinking through lemon-balm.
Calm down, iridescent mist swept
along by always-rising winds. The nerve.
The outrageous auxiliary verb: may be.
Lesley Wheeler’s new books are The State She’s In, her fifth poetry collection, and Unbecoming, her first novel. Her poems and essays appear in such journals as The Common, Crab Orchard Review, Ecotone, and Massachusetts Review, and she is Poetry Editor of Shenandoah. She lives in Lexington, Virginia.
Return to September 2020 Edition
Low-down ground by the stream acts joyful.
Bluebells, trillium? Get out of town with your frilled
carillon. Pink Moon, Grass Moon, Egg Moon,
there’s no call to fling brilliance in this
of all springs. I can’t even with such beauty.
Can’t explain to the sweet-breathed lilac.
No words for love-crazed blue jays,
for the cat slinking through lemon-balm.
Calm down, iridescent mist swept
along by always-rising winds. The nerve.
The outrageous auxiliary verb: may be.
Lesley Wheeler’s new books are The State She’s In, her fifth poetry collection, and Unbecoming, her first novel. Her poems and essays appear in such journals as The Common, Crab Orchard Review, Ecotone, and Massachusetts Review, and she is Poetry Editor of Shenandoah. She lives in Lexington, Virginia.
Return to September 2020 Edition