It Is Towards Evening Poem by Cathy Smith

it is towards evening
when i finally realize
that the day is like the
evergreen: dark and light
growth in its fullness.

the final cool end of the day
comes high on top of the trees
as if the heating and cooling
of the earth is threatening the broad
starry sky to not
reappear past the darkening clouds,

as the light through
the woods flickers out like a match.
never mind,

even though they say that the stars
are not permanent but have been
burning relentlessly for billions
of years and, just now (and when

we can see their
light in the rising darkness
of the sky far away)
they of course burn again
underneath a wash of clouds
over the continuous sound of
the ocean -
all night long
until the morning
and on towards evening again -
when the dark evergreen
in its fullness reaches
for the coolness
in the deeper tides

of indigo.


Copyright c Cathy Smith in Apple Cider,1993