Tenth Day of April

I tried to expand my style. An exercise in using another's words to extend your own.

When time again resigns itself to fail

      Rekindle

      the violet to the very

      lady 's-slipper

      — W. C. Williams

Choose how to close this day and then begin to alter 

all the recipes for a setting sun, dip slowly into 

oranges and blues — clear out the shadows. 

Rekindle night by a fairy's wand

replacing snow with snow and rain with rain;

throughout the virgin meadows, grasses grow 

to reach beyond the stars — if light is thought 

and thought is brighter here; the violet to the 

very end wilts

in a passionate way, smiling through pain 

and time's most recent failure to recall the 

meaning of itself— a lady's slipper 

pause to cry.

[Copyright 1998]