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NEWS FEATURE: Franz Wright’s Poem `Cloudless Snowfall’

Christa Brown

c. 2004 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) CLOUDLESS SNOWFALL

Great big flakes like white ashes


at nightfall descending

abruptly everywhere

and vanishing

in this hand like the host

on somebody’s put-out tongue, she

turns the crucifix over

to me, still warm

from her touch two years later

and thank you,

I say all alone _

Vast whisp-whisp of wingbeats

awakens me and I look up

at a minute-long string of black geese

following low past the moon the white

course of the snow-covered river and

by the way thank You for

keeping Your face hidden, I

can hardly bear the beauty of this world.

_ Franz Wright

(“Walking to Martha’s Vineyard,” Knopf, 2003. Excerpt published with author’s permission.)

DEA/JL END BROWN

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