Poem of the Day: “Night Drift” by Nels Hanson

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “Night Drift” by Nels Hanson.  A brief bio of Mr. Hanson may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2015/11/poem-of-day-things-leaving-by-nels.html.

Night Drift

Nels Hanson

Alone at sunset walk the high orchard

path and descend steep bank, past carved

doors of gopher, ground squirrel, weasel

or fox, farther down, where white sand

meets black mud. See bullfrogs erupt in

murky shallows, emerald thumb-sized frogs

leap a green world’s dense stand of tulles

under scarlet dragonflies. From willow’s

limb lift frayed rope and pull, hear scrape

and fold of rushes, forest veil parting as

prow like a snout noses and appears. Step

in, use one oar for pole, push through

bending cousins of bamboo, now row to

open stillness turning bluer. Lie back, take

in sapphire sky, cloud snowy as one egret

gliding, arrow beak, neck like a bow. Drift,

feel hidden spring feed deep water, pond

and wooden boat rise toward Venus and

first stars, white eyes of waking night.

Poet’s Notes:  I composed "Night Drift" by letting myself re-inhabit a setting I'd known well and in solitude. In rural areas, at dusk a different "nature" begins to wake, and one feels enveloped by the coming night and its familiars. By noting the images in the order in which they occurred, I saw that the poem was about becoming one with the night, as clear distinctions begin to disappear and a darker and perhaps deeper unity expresses itself.

Editor’s Note:  I was transported to the magical place described as I read this lovely poem.  The use of sylvan images throughout with the gradual shift to those of the sky at the end is particularly well executed.  "Night Drift" first appeared in the October 2013 issue of Hamilton Stone Review.