Early Afternoon, Having Just Left the Chapel of San Francesco by James Brasfield

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend October 27, 2014   Early Afternoon, Having Just Left the Chapel of San Francesco   James Brasfield

Radiant the delayed calmness, —Do you feel it, I said. —Yes, you said,   of what only each can know, kernel of radiance, the globo terrestre   of a water drop, not the passing adaptations of canonical light, but seconds stilled—   our hearts beating through the moments—centuries of the next tick of a watch relieved,   a world enough in time to imagine Piero walk to work across cobblestones   toward a completion, his close attention to sunlight passing through shadows   owned by the sharp angles of buildings, sunrays warming what they touch.  Piero, first a painter, is not a monk.  He will make what welcomes light   a source of light: slow the day he will add lucent black wings to white feathers of the magpie ever alight on a roof-edge.   I found a feather on a stone, feather I thought from the angel’s wing, that arc of light   held aloft in descent, shared with us and Constantine in his dream.    I think of a white egret returning home near the high creek, through unwavering   evening light, to sleep, sleep at Sansepolcro, where we were headed in a rental car.            Copyright © 2014 by James Brasfield. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “My son Will (a painter) and I were on the ‘trail’ of Piero della Francesca: Perugia, Arezzo, Sansepolcro, and Monterchi. Very soon after we stepped from the chapel in Arrezzo, the experience described in the opening lines of the poem occurred. The poem explores the intersection of circumstances simultaneously in time and outside of time: the eye feels what it sees.” —James Brasfield   James Brasfield is the author of Ledger of Crossroads (Louisiana State University Press, 2009). He teaches at Penn State University and lives in State College, Pennsylvania. Most Recent Book by Brasfield   Ledger of Crossroads (Louisiana State University Press, 2009) "Time" by Chris Martin "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound "The Moon in Time Lapse" by David Rivard Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038