Arches of Sky
Selections from the Poetry
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Frothingham Park
Joy comes on dragonfly wings
Like beautiful brittle glass
Between us
Like quicksilver
Even as its tributaries mingle
When our voices crack,
White Winter Eve
The closeness of our daily round
Before I knew what happened
I stood in freshness, quiet, warm
I almost tried to hold the snow
snapping with cellophane electricity -
comes with summerbug buzz
and kids perched, laughing, atop freshly baled hay
piled high on tractor carts
under puffy white clouds
gathering themselves into pictures
on royal blue canvas.
your voice lies before me
shattered on the floor
and a dull ache
winds itself around my throat.
warm and white
flows a river -
- milk
we cannot cup to drink:
it cannot be grasped
and yet it is,
even as we are,
though we wonder who we are,
we who issue from the unknown
to tread the edge of the undiscovered.
the river changes its course:
when we almost break with wonder,
words melt away
as do we
becoming a prism
separating light.
had pushed me quite outside
into a cold gray quiet eve
where darkness stretched out wide.
I trudged along into the wind,
chin tucked out of sight -
a small, snow-dusted figure
against the winter light.
I was at the roadway’s edge
almost overlooking
our friendly neighbor’s hedge;
my footsteps grated o’er the ground
as snow whhhshd softly down;
somehow the air smelled fresh (felt warm!)
with snowflakes dusting down.
as evening’s twilight hue
colored meadow, roadway, hedge
soft yet brilliant blue;
then it slowly, gently happened
‘midst snow and scent and light
that it snowed both on and in me,
and everything was white . . .
like it was holding me
to bring the magic home for you
so you could touch and see -
but the evening sighed and it was time
yet now I think of snow that way:
from inside, looking out.
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About the Book
Probably I’m not the only one who feels that poetry is a way of seeing. Arches is a rich collection of perceptions, and I know the wealth of perspectives offered will nourish those who read it.
About the Author
Em Niles is a New England writer. Her writing has appeared in magazines such as Animals Magazine, Fraternity, and Mother’s Manual; in chapbooks such as Broken Streets III, Sing, Heavenly Muse, Somewhere I’m In Ruins, and Manna; in newspapers such as the Hingham Mariner, Attleboro Sun Chronicle, and the Mansfield BUZZ. Her work appears in Poetry's Elite: The Best Poets of 2000, and is scheduled to appear in Nature’s Echoes, two anthologies compiled by the International Library of Poetry. Her work has also appeared in the Quincy College Campus Chronicle, and in Spectrum, Northeastern University’s literary publication. Her collection entitled Wave Offering was funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Arts Lottery Council. Her other collections include A Place for Me, Under His Wings, Handful of Quicksilver, and Serenities: Company for the Late Night Hours.