Lapland Longspur<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Arctic Sparrow
\nit balances
\non a dwarf fireweed.
\nHills and sky roll
\noff the end of the visible world<\/p>\n
which tilts
\nthrough the implacable
\nharmonies
\nof space, unprotected,
\nits own laws exacting
\nand without prejudice.<\/p>\n
Even so, a furious
\nand delicate imbalance
\nthrives here:<\/p>\n
purple aster, harebell,
\nyellow oxytrope, the Longspur
\nwhose perch trembles
\nas it lets go and darts to the next.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
Some proportions
\nhave no meaning: harebell
\nto Arctic winter, Longspur
\nto the urgency of summer
\non the tundra\u2019s millions of acres
\nwhere it nests,
\nits home lined
\nwith a puff of wool
\nfrom the musk ox.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
Fewer and fewer stars set
\nas one travels
\nfarther north in winter.
\nThe Auroras swing across the sky,
\nsouls, some say,
\nof children
\nwho have died at birth.
\nAll night, they dance,
\nall the sunless weeks
\nthey dance in circles
\nwhipping streamers of light
\nacross the land encased
\nby an adamant darkness.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
Tonight, the news
\nof a death was followed
\nby a Mozart concerto
\nfor flute and orchestra,<\/p>\n
was followed by the music
\nof Mozart as it has played
\nthrough two centuries of loss<\/p>\n
for which there is no recompense.<\/p>\n
The life of a bird
\nhurries from sparrow to sparrow.<\/p>\n
The Longspur builds
\nits minute bones with calcium
\nfrom the skeletons of lemmings.<\/p>\n
Occasionally, on the beach,
\nit nests in the skull of a walrus<\/p>\n
The life of a bird
\nsometimes hurries from a stutter
\nof wings to singing that flashes
\nacross an empty landscape.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
Point Barrow:
\nNear midnight, July Fourth,
\ntwo boys walk out
\non the melting sea ice.<\/p>\n
From a distance,
\nagainst the white sea,
\nsmall and black under the sun,
\nthey seem to be dancing
\nround and round<\/p>\n
on the ice
\nat its most dangerous.<\/p>\n
A few say, when we speak
\nof the end<\/p>\n
of the Longspur, even
\nof Mozart, a very few say still
\nthe earth may heal itself.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Lapland Longspur” originally appeared in Ironwood.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Anne Pitkin <\/a>grew up in Clarksville, TN, and earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Vanderbilt University. She earned a second master’s from Antioch University in 1988. She has worked both as a community college instructor and as a psychotherapist. Winter Arguments<\/a><\/em> (Ahadada Books, 2011) is her third collection after Yellow<\/em> <\/a>(Arrowood Books, 1989) and the chapbook Notes for Continuing the Performance<\/em> (Jawbone Press, 1977). Her work has appeared in Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Alaska Quarterly Review,<\/em> and many others. A mother of three, grandmother of two, she currently lives in Seattle, where she plays jazz piano with her friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lapland Longspur Arctic Sparrow it balances on a dwarf fireweed. Hills and sky roll off the end of the visible world which tilts through the implacable harmonies of space, unprotected, its own laws exacting and without prejudice. Even so, … Continue reading