Persistent at the brink, the cypresses
lean away backward to receive the winds
prevailing on this spot, balancing
resistance and compensation in the open-weave
basketwork of their limbs:
weight braced facing a single way
against an invisible pressure from ahead
in veering weather and when the air falls quiet
steadfast in the same stance, a posture of defense
by success, then habit,
decides the limits of a life—but Susan, look,
we are not rooted in one place,
we are not stuck
in the identical configuration
always:
we can step across
our shadows
we can turn
and rise—
yes,
that’s right—
and face the light.
—Jim Powell
Jim Powell’s latest collection of poetry, Substrate, was published in April 2009 by Pantheon. His translation of Sappho’s poetry is available from Oxford.
