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Meadow Turf
by Janet Lewis
Read by Joan Haas


Goldenrod, strawberry leaf, small
bristling aster, all,

Loosestrife, knife-bladed grasses,

lacing their roots, lacing

The life of the meadow into a deep embrace
Far underground, and all their shoots,

wet at the base

With shining dew, dry-crested with sun,

Springing out of a mould years old;

Leaves, living and dead, whose stealing

Odors on the cold bright air shed healing-

Oh, heart, here is your healing, here among

The fragrant living and dead.





Janet Lewis. Poems Old and New 1918-1978. Swallow Press, Ohio University Press, Chicago, IL, 1982 p. 32