"Orion Dead" by H. D.

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend April 29, 2018   Orion Dead   H. D.

[Artemis speaks]                The cornel-trees                uplift from the furrows,                              the roots at their bases                strike lower through the barley-sprays.                  So arise and face me.                I am poisoned with the rage of song.                            I once pierced the flesh                          of the wild-deer,                          now am I afraid to touch                          the blue and the gold-veined hyacinths?                            I will tear the full flowers                          and the little heads                          of the grape-hyacinths.                          I will strip the life from the bulb                          until the ivory layers                          lie like narcissus petals                          on the black earth.                            Arise,                          lest I bend an ash-tree                          into a taut bow,                          and slay—and tear                          all the roots from the earth.                  The cornel-wood blazes                and strikes through the barley-sprays,                but I have lost heart for this.                  I break a staff.                I break the tough branch.                I know no light in the woods.                I have lost pace with the winds.                This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   "Orion Dead" appeared in Some Imagist Poets: An Anthology (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1915).   Hilda Doolittle was born in 1886 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. A leader of the Imagist movement, she authored many poetry collections, including Red Roses for Bronze (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1931) and Helen in Egypt (Grove Press, 1961). She died in 1961. Poetry by H. D.   Vale Ave (New Directions, 2013) "Holy Cosmos" by Nathalie Handal "house of strays" by Kristy Bowen "Orion" by James Longenbach April Guest Editor: Tracy K. Smith   Thanks to Tracy K. Smith, current United States poet laureate and author of Wade in the Water (Graywolf Press, 2018), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about Smith and our guest editors for the year. Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! 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