THE LAKE
by Sophie Cabot Black
Day and night, the lake dreams of sky.
A privacy as old as the mountains
And her up there, stuck among peaks. The whole eye
Fastened on hawk, gatherings of cloud or stars,
So little trespass. An airplane once
Crossed her brow; she searched but could not find
A face. Having lived with such strict beauty
She comes to know how the sun is nothing
But itself and the path it throws; the moon
A riddled stone. If only a hand
Would tremble along her cheek, would disturb. Even the elk
Pass by, drawn to the spill of creeks below—
How she cannot help abundance, even as it leaves
Her, as it sings all the way down the mountain.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Raised on a small New England farm, poet Sophie Cabot Black received a BA from Marlboro College and an MFA from Columbia University. Black’s collections of poetry include The Misunderstanding of Nature (1994), which won the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award, and The Descent (2004), which won the Connecticut Book Award. Black’s poetry has been anthologized in Best American Poetry and Never Before: Poems About First Experiences (2005). Her honors include the Grolier Poetry Prize and the Poetry Society of America’s John Masefield Memorial Award.
PHOTO: “Evening, McDonald Lake, Glacier National Park (Montana)” by Ansel Adams (1942).
Silver Birch Press 