Before I get into the great poem I would just like to have a small moment of silence for this great class…There we go. Onto the poem.

This is how the poem made me feel. Overall this poem just fills me with satisfaction and an acceptance of death while also cherishing fond memories from loved ones who are gone. It reminds me of the beauties you can find in the past and all the great moments you had or shared with a person or at a specific point and just because it is gone doesn’t mean that you didn’t live and enjoy such a great and blissful memories.

The Garden

BY MARK STRAND

for Robert Penn WarrenIt shines in the garden,
in the white foliage of the chestnut tree,   
in the brim of my father’s hat
as he walks on the gravel.

In the garden suspended in time   
my mother sits in a redwood chair:   
light fills the sky,
the folds of her dress,
the roses tangled beside her.

And when my father bends
to whisper in her ear,
when they rise to leave
and the swallows dart
and the moon and stars
have drifted off together, it shines.

Even as you lean over this page,   
late and alone, it shines: even now   
in the moment before it disappears.