Sunday, October 28, 2012

Merlin Talking to Himself, Long Island Poem for Halloween Sunday

In a few days princesses and witches, ghosts, pirates, skeletons, etc, will knock on your door and try to trick you. What a fun game of pretend it is. But what if you are the real thing, a grown, wizened wizard, doing magic for a very long time? We offer an inside look conjured by poet John Digby.

Collage by John Digby
Merlin Talking to Himself
for Jeremy Reed
by John Digby 

Once I could talk to water
And turn it into stone

I could behead the night
With a smile
And turn flowing blood
Into a blazing field of poppies

In any of my former lives
I could walk among the stars
And name every one
And remember each name

I could hold the sun in my left hand
And cool it with my breath

In my right hand
I could hold all the dead
And make them dance
Until they dropped from exhaustion

I could make the birds perch
On the fingers of rain
And make them sing so sweetly
That the stars would rain tears

Even in sleep
I could cut off the legs of a goat
With a wink
And make it fly around the moon

Nowadays
I can only change my shadow into a horse
And make it ride over the tops of forests
And other simple thing like that

Bah and they call that a miracle!

'Merlin Talking to Himself' by John Digby from 'Sailing Away from Night' published in 1978 by Anvil Press Poetry and Kayak Books.
Reprinted with author's permission.


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1 comment:

  1. John wrote to us: "Good morning Ewa, thanks for putting Merlin up on Long Island First. When it was first published five other poets wrote to me to say how much they really enjoyed it! Strange I wrote it "of the cuff" in less than a few minutes! That has never occurred again! Best John"

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