Elizabeth Spires

Usually I am not a huge fan of Whitman-like poetry; while I of course respect his work and have a few favorites, it's more like the laid groundwork in my opinion--after him, his American countryman felt his influence ripple throughout the place. One poem did Whitman well--it's in the Beltway Poetry Quarterly journal here, issue of winter 2004.

The poem is "Grass" by Elizabeth Spires. It has a great sense of commentary and spare American plains type landscape without being too simple. I really like the opening and the ending, which I will excerpt here:

I walked in the waist-high grass [...]

I desired then
to be silent and alone,
like a stone spilled
by time into a field
the mower slowly
scythes, a stone
completely unto itself,
warmed by the sun,
shining in the sun.