Poem April 17, 2006 Issue

Night watch

Bettie Gray

"Hope," wrote the poet,
"is the thing with feathers."*
If so, it covers and comforts you, till,
leaning on its wings, you fly
up and above a forest of fears
to watch
from a higher branch,
perhaps to sing
from the very top of the tree;
perhaps to sing
with every sign of light—
though the night star's glow is far—still
to watch

until divine Love's dawn
begins to fill the sky with day,
and you
with song.

—Bettie Gray

*Robert N. Linscott, Selected Poems Letters of Emily Dickinson, (New York: Doubleday, Anchor Books Edition, 1959), p. 79.

Send a comment to the editors