Ezra Pound's Petals On A Bough Poem by Linda Hepner

In a Station of the Metro,1912, by Ezra Pound.
The 2-line ‘Masterpiece' examined by Willard Spiegelman in
Wall Street Journal Review, January 7,2017.

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

Ezra Pound



SUDDEN

by Linda Hepner

Petals on a wet, black bough.
The apparition of these faces in the crowd.
Petals on a wet black bough.

The apparition of these faces from the dark,
Bodies blackened in the night,
Subearth tunnels streaming into silent black,

Petals on a buried bough,
Tunnels heading hinter with the swallowed crowd
Frightened glances up to light,

Lighting flash from brief, enlightened beams,
Blossoms for an instant now,
Vanished phantoms helpless on a sodden bough,

Varnished petals on a vase,
Uncalled recalls of a shadowed thought like dreams,
Vanquished faces from the past.

LRH
1.7.17