After the post in the wee hours this morning on Richard Wilbur, I realized that I had neglected to mention one poem of his that has affected my own work. His “Two Voices in a Meadow” is masterful and lives in my heart and brain (yes, I do have it memorized!)
Some years ago, I wrote an homage poem to his poem. Mine is called “Two Voices in a Starbucks” and was first published in Mezzo Cammin and then included in my most recent book-length collection, Concertina.
I’m sharing it again, here, as a “lagniappe”, a little something extra, a Cajun French term I learned during my years in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where I encountered both Community Coffee and Wilbur’s poetry! (I am also including a link to his more masterful and nuanced poem–do read his first and last!)
LESLIE
Two Voices in a Starbucks (for Richard Wilbur) Coffee I grow on mountain slopes cooled by the breath of God, a rosy, cozy berry. My bean outshines its pod. I submit to fire and blade. My flavor is my yield. Drop by drop, I offer up the fragrance of the field. Tea My legend says the Buddha refused his mountain sleep by cutting off his eyelids: these leaves you wake to steep. Thanks to India and China the world can now create my delicate, leafy brew to sip, to meditate. Leslie Schultz