The Truest Things
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
The truest things stop mind or heart in mid
Thought, beat. They halt the eyes. An April tree
Is like the prophet saints who all forbid
Our boredoms. Seers seek theophany.
The truest things are summer, shark fins in
The ocean waves that lifeguards yell to warn
About, a cancer tumor on the skin,
A blast above Hiroshima to mourn.
The truest things in autumn, maple sap
That rises like a hidden spirit, slant
Of sunlight through the scarlet leaves that slap
In holy dreams: these facts destroy cant.
Each perfect snowflake in the winter blinks
The truth and teaches it with glistening winks.
~ Phillip Whidden