Millpond Gardens
Your steps descend a narrow, bushy lane
And cross the threshold of the cottage door,
To cease upon the screened porch, stand before
The still pond. You dissolve into the scene.
A frog croaks; turtles dive; a heron flees
The blue jay that torments him.
From the banks
That slope beyond these waters, stony ranks
Of Union dead sleep in their winding sheets
Beneath a buttercup-bespangled lawn.
Now glowing in the pool’s translucent glare,
Which bodies forth your mind, the morning sun
Unfolds into Thoreau’s white lily there,
Away from Walden and the tourists’ stares–
And shines within you, first fruit of the dawn.
Bio: Lee Evans was born in Maryland, spent most of his life in that state, and is currently living in Bath, Maine. After graduating from college he held a variety of jobs, including those of landscape laborer, floral delivery man, collection attendant for Goodwill Industries, clerk at the Maryland State Archives, and his current job on the assembly line in a candle factory. He has published poems in Contemporary Rhyme, The Golden Lantern, and the anthology Rhyme and Reason. He has recently produced a poetry collection called Maryland Weather, which is available on Lulu.com and Amazon.com.
Thoughts on poetry: As for my opinion on poetry in general, I feel it should be a means by which reality can be opened up to the spiritual seeker. I realize that much poetry is for entertainment purposes, and that is all well and go as far as it goes, but that kind of poetry wears thin after a very short time. I read Emerson, Wordsworth, Frost, Yeats, Dickenson, Hardy–you will detect the tendency of my interest. I choose to communicate with the world in poetic form because I really have no other choice–it is my nature to do so; I do it because I do it.