Happy Hallow's Eve!

Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness — for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee, and their will
Shall overshadow thee; be still.

From Spirits of the Dead by Edgar Allan Poe

***

Unbidden

The ghosts swarm.

They speak as one

person. Each

loves you. Each

has left something

undone.

          •

Did the palo verde

blush yellow

all at once?

Today's edges

are so sharp

they might cut

anything that moved.

          •

The way a lost

word

will come back

unbidden.

You're not interested

in it now,

only

in knowing

where it's been.

Rae Armantrout

***

Tree House

Start with a tree,
an old willow with its feet in the water,
and one low branch to let you in
and a higher branch to let you
upstairs,
and a lookout branch to show
how far you've come
(the lake before you,
the woods at your back),

and now you are close
to those who live in these rooms
without walls, without doors:
one nuthatch typing its way up the bark,
two mourning doves calling the sun out of darkness,
three blackbirds folding their wings tipped with sunset,
twelve crows threading the air and stitching
a cape that whirls them away
through the empty sky,

and don't forget the blue heron
stalking the shallows for bluegills,
and don't forget the otter backpaddling past you,
and the turtles perched on the log like shoes
lined up each night in a large family,

and don't forget the owl
who has watched over you
since you were born.

Be the housekeeper of trees,
who have nothing to keep
except silence.

Nancy Willard