First Flight

Is this the obvious, written after Evelyn's first air plane flight? Or in her wonderfully mysterious mind, does it have totally other, spiritual meaning, perhaps referring to Isaiah 40:31? Is it her triumph of having been able to run and not be weary?

First Flight

Now I have lain upon an eagle’s heart

And roamed the vastness of immortal skies;

Have closely felt his straining pulses part

With breath and live again, all gladdened sighs.

With timid hand I’ve torn white mist athwart

And gazed upon its void with startled eyes.

I’ve scaled sublimity on man-made wings

And tracked the dauntless eagle’s wanderings!

Evelyn Coffey

Water Lily and Dirge

Grief and God’s transforming love appear over and over in Evelyn’s work and are the constants in her life.

Water-Lily

A water-lily has a soul.

I felt it reaching out to me

One summer day. Its white hands stole

The grief that held me in its girth

And left my heart unbounded and free,

Praising the green kinship of earth.

A water-lily has a soul.

Evelyn Coffey

Dirge (Dated and written only months after her beloved sister Rose’s death.)

I am the last live autumn leaf.

Last night a grim nor’easter barged

Across the woods, a vagrant thief

Whose pockets bulged with firearms

Of drastic power. He fiercely charged

And shot my comrades down in swarms.

I am the last live autumn leaf.

Evelyn Coffey - 11/8/34

Three short poems

July 6, 2010

Three unrelated bits of free verse placed together only because they all were typed on a same page and because of their common brevity. In each Evelyn conveys wondrous depths with only a few lines that pulse with life.

Benediction

Fireflies are candles

That cast pale, hallowing gleams

On wood paths at night.

Conquest

I flung my spirit

Against the wall of your hate,

And it fell, papered

And gashed and old, like leather

Preyed upon by wind and rain.

To Brown Eyes

Amber-voiced chancel

Of a white soul, what holy

Of holies lights you?

Evelyn Coffey

Answer

Answer

Ah, Phaon! Thou art come at last!

The waiting seemed overlong to me,

Even in this timeless land of shades

An endless, pulseless monotony.

Zeus forgave me some time since

The deathless Love I dared for Thee.

Athene’s portals opened wide

And offered joy for Eternity.

But in my heart of hearts I knew

That I could only choose to dwell

Condemned forever....with no hope

Of Second Spring....with Thee in Hell.

The folly of Thy youthful days

Means naught....ah, less than naught to me,

For as I crossed the dismal tide

Into your soul I could plainly see

That you were vain. Eyes half veiled,

Lush lips bedewed with ruby wine,

Bestowing kisses, lured you away,

And with you love I know was mine....

Mine though Heaven and Earth should merge

In chaos! Now the past belongs

To the dim dream that we called Life –

That whispering echo of forgotten songs.

Here together let us dwell among

These deathless Shadow Shapes until

Olympus’ angry Gods are paid in full

For Heaven we stole from their cloud-crowned Hill.

Evelyn Coffey

The Isle of Ghostly Trees

To Father Hubbard, the “Glacier Priest”


The Isle of Ghostly Trees


The isle of ghostly trees: bleak trees whose souls

Visibly tread the too eternal dark!

Seething volcanoes whose dim, poisonous bowls

Breathe in the trees a strange, new, vital spark!

Shrill-glaring torches flaunt the scarry shoals

Of lone Alaska’s fire-shriven park:

Flaunt with emblazoned face the tragic tolls

Of brave explorers who have failed their mark.


This isle presents an awesome paradox:

A further proof of the immortal plan

That life in very dying conquers death.

An iridescent flame transcends the rocks,

As from the soul of a forgotten man,

And stirs the trees with spiritual breath.


Evelyn Coffey

Red Waters

Red Waters

Watch the red waters play,

Dazzled with sunset spray.

If you’ve dim thoughts of gray,

Watch the red waters play.

Witness the death of day,

Dazzled with sunset spray.

Over the twilit bay.

Watch the red waters play

Against the silent clay,

Dazzled with sunset spray.

Now, while your heart is gay,

Watch the red waters play.

Dazzled with sunset spray,

Watch the red waters play!

Evelyn Coffey

Cradle Song

The anguish of Eveln's grief is always there, closely entwined with her faith that struggles and finally sustains her.

Cradle Song

Wooden manger

May a stranger

Kneel before you

And adore you?

Dear God-Baby,

I thought maybe

If I cuddled

You, my muddled

Brain could sever

Grief, the lever

Of each doubting

Angel's shouting.

Little One, wise

Christ-Child, will eyes,

Blind with sorrow,

See tomorrow?