Three Poems
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Midnight in the Garden in Sassandra
Drowsing deep in cricket song
I sit
this side of moon,
rising again full-faced
to meet another month, Africa, and
Time! it is different here;
huge spaces
fall out of the sky or
drop from beneath me,
floundering in the void.
When am I? wailing in the night -
only another jungle sound
screaming the pain of life.
Stark the moonlight:
eerie blue quotidian negative;
colors bloom silvery in the night.
(Hibiscus, there, hiding red behind the pallid gleam!)
I step cautiously,
dreaming a dream that does not wake.
The beauty pierces me with
its impossible clarity –
can it be shatterproof,
this transparent suspension
of, is it to be believed,
Truth?
Putting Up Posts
Fine dark dirt powder
sprayed his bare ankles,
sticking to the sweaty flesh and
flecking his legs.
The pick cut a quick wound
deep in the earth,
softly yielding.
He twirled a post to whittle a point,
shaving the edges
with a smooth hatchet stroke.
Bracing the post with a wedged rock,
he pounded it into the trough,
then stooped
to pack the loose soil firm.
From that angle
he could see down the river,
through a gap in the bushes
where the path
descended.
Lamentations
Is the beauty not enough now,
midst all the gloom and pain?
Can’t you soothe your soul
with moonlight,
sea...sky,
wind…rain?
What of those big questions
that echo a refrain:
What should I…
How can I…
Why am I even…?
Why? Why?
You may well ask;
there will be no reply.
Don’t scream to the heavens
or beat the sweet earth. Appeal
to the flowers
for all that is worth.
Spill
your gross lamentations
in obscure verse; there will be
no sign
from the mute universe.
Birds
will still sing…
waves crash…
stars shine.
The answer is not
theirs to reveal --
it is yours to divine.
“Lamentations” originally appeared in An Evening with Emily Dickinson, Wingless Dreamer
“Putting Up Posts” was originally published in Sapling and “Midnight in the Garden in Sassandra” was published in Botany Of Gaia, both by Quillkeepers Press
Sharon E. Ludan holds a B.A. from the College of New Jersey and an M.S. from Boston University. As an American diplomat, Ludan has lived and worked in many countries throughout the world. Her work has been published by Proverse Hong Kong, Wingless Dreamer, Quillkeepers Press, Unleash Press; the Kansai Scene; the OSIPP Journal, and elsewhere.