Painting by Adam Espelee Cohen
In Fear and Valor
My mother was afraid
and in my life her fear has hid:
when Perseus hold's the Gorgon's head,
she cringes, naked.
Clothed in my body, wild,
even as I grew strong,
my mother weeping, suffered
the whole world's wrong.
Vanquished and trembly before she died,
she claimed a place in my every limb:
my mother, lost in my stride,
fears Death,
as I hunt him.
William Stafford
Posted over on William Stafford Archives
No comments:
Post a Comment