The Vibrant Channeled Creator

“Those Winter Sundays,” by Robert Hayden,

from Angel of Ascent (Liveright).

Sundays too my father got up early


and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,


then with cracked hands that ached


from labor in the weekday weather made


banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.


When the rooms were warm, he’d call,


and slowly I would rise and dress,


fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,


who had driven out the cold


and polished my good shoes as well.


What did I know, what did I know


of love’s austere and lonely offices?

When I grew to womanhood I learned how my love kept me warm.

JP

all rights

12/3/23