LETTER FROM A REFUGE

The smal silence gray/green sky 
over burned-out hills. 

Majestic
ecliptic silence.
Not days but hours scythed into dusk
and dawn.
entangled limbs after seeking
blessed repose. Together
old, we are less old.

Darkness falls like unrevealed
secret. Candles lit to smooth
our face.

Birds slice the air yet we reclaim
the whole. December pale 
colossal whales
gathering snow. The white – iridescent –
glows back. A magpie
pecking at berries.
time a solidity and down where
knuckled roots grasp the core.

Time not before
but after. You and I, a disclosure,
no other whish but  what
we find.

Patrizia de Rachewiltz, My Taishan, Raffaelli Editore – 2007