Featured Poem: Fragments of the Dark by Elizabeth Jennings

This week's Featured Poem is brought to you by Sam, and she reads 'Fragments of the Dark' by Elizabeth Jennings. 

Let it not come near me, let it not 

Fold round or over me. One weak hand 

Clutches a foot of air, asks the brisk buds 

To suffer grey winds, spear through 

Fog I feel in me. Give me the magic 

To see grounded starlings, their polish 

As this threat of all-day night. Mind, mind 

In me, make thoughts candles to light me 

Out of the furthest reach of possible nights. 

Lantern me, stars, if I look up through wet hands, 

Show assurance in blurred shining. I have 

Put every light in the house on. 

May their filaments last till true morning. 

Elizabeth Jennings, "Fragments of the Dark" from Collected Poems. Copyright © 2001 by The Estate of Elizabeth Jennings. Used with the permission of David Higham Associates.