Down My Ladder Poem by gershon hepner

Down my ladder to my moon,
landing on my lunar berth,
I’ll descend to meet you soon,
in the sunlight, down on earth.

Whether you are full or crescent,
you must read this line by line,
from me to you a special present,
dearer than good food or wine.

If you do not like it I
will climb the ladder rung by rung,
looking down on you from high,
sad, remaining highly strung.

If you like it, though, I’ll smile,
and hope you’ll let me read it to
the person with whom I would while
most moon- and sunlight time––yes, you!

Inspired a line that Robert Lowell uses to describe,1957, one of his innumerable subsidings from mania to functionality cited by Helen Vendler in an article in a review of the correspondence between Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop (NYR,2009) :

Gracelessly, like a standing child trying to sit down, like a cat or a coon coming down a tree, I'm getting down my ladder to the moon.

3/11/09
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