Rachel Hadas
SEA, SKY, MOUNTAIN, LANTERN
Oilslicked, opal, sapphire,
saturnine, the Aegean
deploys dark bands of seaweed
whose tideless ripples lap
fitfully in a sly
slow agon with a sky
whose brazen heat
gonging down at noon
blues to a weak solution
over rainrinsed twilight
and fades to greyish gauze
behind this yellow moon,
new and demure,
glimmering at the mountain
that beetles over land
and water; halfway up,
a convent squats in pines,
one of whose seven nuns,
perhaps to greet a pilgrim,
perhaps to mark a saint's day
tonight has lit a lantern
in the chapel window
shining for miles and miles.
I
