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Wednesday 13 March 2013

Eden in the Fall (Sheila Martindale)




Sheila Martindale’s varied career has included that of editor, broadcast journalist, theatre columnist and occasional teacher.
She was born and educated in England, moving to Montreal in 1966, where she lived through the October Crisis of 1970, and then relocated to Ontario. After raising her family there, she continued her westward trek, stopping for one winter in Alberta before making the final push to the west coast. She now makes her home in Victoria, where she is very active on the literary and artistic scene.

 

Eden in the Fall



The first spring
earth spun out of chaos
beginnings 

a time of saplings
and birth
of venturing wobbly-kneed
through Eden’s seedling meadows

At what season
were apples ripe
in Paradise?
Not in those early days
of awed delight
at all small growths

nor even as summer reached its height
in the thickening of hedgerows
in long slow days
the air still with heat

Eve, not in the springtime
or summer of your life
not in your days of naive youth
nor even as you grew into maturity
you did not yearn
in those years
for a taste of knowledge
or of truth

No
It must have been in autumn
your thoughts turning
and falling among the leaves
when the apples
juicycrisp redglowing
hung with tantalizing readiness
within your reach

Yes - then
after the seasons of wildflowers
and lazy warmth
of dreaming and drifting
you were ready
to take a chunk of life
savour its semi-sweetness
taste its stimulating tang

and offer it to him
to share

1 comment:

Ed Baker said...

VERY neatly done poem via Sheila Martindale...

just sent you some recently done images
along the same mind-stuff as her poem is.

and
the thought has just 'struck' me
that:

Money has ruined BOTH art and Poetry .... the mantra now ....

"whatever sells is art / poetry"

next thing y'all will see is
a room for rent by the hour
in which to read a poem or
show a painting ?