Artwork Description:
Christine Lassiter [ 1961-2001 ] poet, playwright, friend, educator, social activist. Here is one of her late poems[ without her original line arrangement ]
PAGODA ROOF :
Beyond the orange fence, beyond the graves on the hillside,
beyond the bluebird on the break of day,
I go, knowing only that I go.
Crows cawing because the morning is theirs,
each feather etching the sky
as raven cries light the pagoda roof.
What beckons ?
The wash of melancholy dew that sifts softly through the light ?
The orange fence crazed raw with rust ?
What beckons ?
The startle of blackberry white as it burgeons with next months life ?
All this, but what beckons ?
Loud as alabaster light, loud as birdsong that cares not where it dallies
dipping into delight as ice skims past precious curved toes,
toes that hold not just this wire at the edge of the world, but everything
every blessed thing that beckons.