In this lovely poem by Angela Shaw, who lives in
Pennsylvania, we hear a voice of wise counsel: Let the young go, let them
do as they will, and admire their grace and beauty as they pass from us
into the future.
Children in a Field
They don’t wade in so much as they are taken. Deep in the day, in the deep of the field, every current in the grasses whispers hurry hurry, every yellow spreads its perfume like a rumor, impelling them further on. It is the way of girls. It is the sway of their dresses in the summer trance —
light, their bare calves already far-gone in green. What songs will they follow? Whatever the wood warbles, whatever storm or harm the border promises, whatever calm. Let them go. Let them go traceless through the high grass and into the willow —
blur, traceless across the lean blue glint of the river, to the long dark bodies of the conifers, and over the welcoming threshold of nightfall.
Reprinted from Poetry, September 2004, Vol. 184, No. 5, by permission of the
author. Poem copyright © 2004 by Angela Shaw. This weekly column is
supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the
Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. This column
does not accept unsolicited poetry.
This article appears in Oct 20-26, 2005.
