The Victorian Violet Press & Journal

Evening

Slight wind, that sometimes through tall grass
            loses its way,
Small birds, that let the sun’s orb pass
            and sleep the day –

All brought together, and a cast
            of light that gives
Release from moments lost, and past.
            Or do they live

Again among the boughs? I sense
            no wind at all,
Except where those far clouds commence
            and swallows fall.

Twilight

As fireflies, like vials of flame,
            break and refill
Their slender flasks, and as the name
            of crickets still

Concatenates against the dark –
            let me retain
A measure of each drifting spark,
            each silver chain,

To savor in some colder world
            when summer’s done –
In verse, and like illustrious pearls,
            each moment strung.

Jared Carter

Jared Carter's newest collection, A Dance in the Street, is forthcoming from Wind Publications in Kentucky. Visit his blog here.

 Art~ John Frederick Kensett