Off Little Deer Isle

Hudson Review, The, Winter 2008 by McFarland, Elizabeth

A box of sweet grasses

Sun-sucked, meadow-long,

A wreath of young pine cones

Fine candles among;

And the bunchberry redbreast

Atilt those dark leaves

On cold shores where ocean

Sieves, and sieves . . .

O the rowantree lifts there

Rich embroidery wild,

Like a sample of Paradise

By an antique child

Who has opened a box

Made of sweet grass and fern,

And whose scarlet heartberry

Must evermore burn.

As poetry editor of The Ladies Home Journal, ELIZABETHMcFARLAND (1922-2005)* brought to six million readers new poems by Marianne Moore, W. H. Auden, Richard Eberhart, and many other leading poets. A book of her own poems, Over the Summer Water, will appear from Orchises Press early this year. . . .

*Asterisk indicates a new contributor.