I have been puzzling over a poem by Robert Francis. There’s not much to find about his life as he was a solitary person, only having success in publication later in life. But this one called Invitation has been haunting me. Perhaps it is because it feels as if there could be heavy snow.
You who have meant to come, come now
With strangeness on the morning snow
Before the early morning plow
Makes half the snowy strangeness go.
You who have meant to come, come now
When only your footprints will show,
Beofre one overburdened bough
Spills snow above on snow below.
You who were meant to come, come now.
If you were meant to come, you’ll know.
Beofre
–> Before
At a superficial level, the poet is asking people to visit him, promising rewards of fresh trodden snow.
At a deeper level, he is feeling lonely, depressed and cut off, because people don’t go visiting in heavy snow.
At a very deep level, he is pointing to our impermanence on earth, pestilence and sickness. He invites people to make the most of the moment.
Thank you Ian, those are insightful and helpful observations.
I have been thinking about how to make the most of the moment.
Freda
Thank you for sharing this poem. In Epiphany mode, I’d say this poem said it all – there’s a suggestion of the “cares and occupations” of our lives here, no? A wonderful feeling of anticipation and strangeness – and all things being, for the moment, new.
Persevere with the RSS feed – I use NetNewsWire. 🙂
Thanks for the hint about RSS I shall have a look at it.
Freda