Peaches & Let There Be More—Two Poems from Elizabeth Wickland

"'More!' beat the wings, 'More!' swirls the wind."

Nov 30, 2023

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Elizabeth Wickland lives in Bozeman, Montana with her husband, daughter, and two Yorkies. She has a love for words and their stories and has responded to life through poetry and art for as long as she can remember. She also enjoys gardening and cultivating beauty in her small corner of the world, whether in person or online. She writes for The Black Barn Online, and her work has been published in The Unmooring, Calla Press, and She is Kindred, among others. You can find her on Instagram at @punamulta.priory and at elizabethwickland.substack.com.

Peaches

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“With my whole body I taste these peaches” ~ Wallace Stevens

With my whole body
I taste these peaches,
the way I'm invited
to taste and see
that the Lord is good.
Its juices run down my chin,
(it is vanity to try to contain them)
like oil down the beard of Aaron.
These summer flavors anoint me
and, like a priest, I am called
to taste afresh
that the Lord is good
with my whole Body.

Let There Be More

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Waves crash, thrash, tumble and roar
'till a voice in the tumult says, "Let there be more."
More peace, more silence, more goodness, more light,
more joy in the day, more rest in the night,
more hope for tomorrow, more healing the past,
more of the beauty, the kind that will last.
"More!" beat the wings, "More!" swirls the wind.
"Let there be life!" and Life stirred within.
In darkness, the light, the infinite bound;
the Word in the silence, who uttered no sound;
the More become less, that all become more;
the Key in the lock, both the Key and the Door.
Let there be more, let there be new,
let there be life where the tree of death grew.
Let there be water, turned wine like the sea,
a sure foundation for the roots of the tree.
In the fullness of time all is made fresh:
the feast and the tree and the garden and flesh.

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