For John Milton

For John Milton

Today’s first waking hour
saw light pushing
under the eaves
into the den

With it
I found your words again,
considering how
your light
was spent

Forced
to stand and wait,
you mourned the chance
for release
onto the page

But obsolete eyes
failed to seal
your descent

What you spoke
from dim depths
threw whitest sparks,
glazed to permanence
in the limitless kiln
of your mind

In the embarrassment
of light
that comes
from every angle,
my words have been
spent carelessly

Standing
and waiting
for some signal
that will not come

So I consider
how your words
were spent

I sit
bathed in the crescendo
that is day,
warmth greeting my shoulder,
light on the page,
poring over this gift
you have left
for me to see

From: 
first published in Wilderness House Literary Review




ABOUT THE POET ~
Katherine Hauswirth is a medical writer by day and a creative writer by stolen moments. She writes creative nonfiction and poetry. She is the author of the book Harriet’s Voice: A Writing Mother’s Journey and contributed to the anthology Get Satisfied: How Twenty People Like You Found the Satisfaction of Enough. Katherine has been published in many venues including The Writer, Byline, The Christian Science Monitor, Pregnancy, The Writer's Handbook, The Writer's Guide to Fiction, Women of Spirit, Wilderness House Literary Review, Poetry Kit, Eat a Peach, Lutheran Digest, and Pilgrimage. A Long Island native, Katherine lives with her husband and son in Deep River, Connecticut.


Last updated May 24, 2011