Halcyon Days

POETRY

Halcyon Days

Two different versions of the same poem. Which is better? Let me know in the comments!

Growing Lonesome Sestina

(Halcyon Days)

With thanks to Miller Williams

Embrace
Halcyon
Days
Which
Grow
Wonder

I wonder
Some days
If Halcyon
Birds embrace,
Knowing which
Nights grow

Or if they grow
Insensate of wonder,
Saving feeling to brace
Against shorter days
that we call Halcyon,
A Romantic ideal which

In my earlier college days
We studied naively to grow
Liberal arts resumes (ha!), which
Themselves offered no Halcyon
Promise, no comforting future under
Any kind of nostalgia or pension-thin embrace

Just the fucking Solstice trivia of these birds we name after Alcyone,
Like we’re supposed to be finding our chill for two weeks of holiday sales
        which
Smack us in the eyeballs with all the money we’ll save, and we wander
Aisle after aisle, web page after pop-up window, while the dread grows,
Because the checks are no measure against this storm, of scented candles
        and brace-
ets and men’s groomers and the only thing that can’t get short enough for
        me are the days . . .

The cold washes in, and I don’t look back at much but another year lost,
one which
Bears only the weight of lists undone, of age-unraveled friendships,
embraces
More desperate than warm, returning to books I’ve long outgrown,
Thinking that maybe, maybe, there can be that sense of wonder
Again, a moment when I can feel nostalgia for days…
Well, feel anything at all I might call Halcyon.

Forgive me that. The days grow
short, and I count, you know, wondering which
number offers the longer night of Halcyon embrace.

I wonder some days
If the birds embrace,
        knowing the longest darks
        are soon behind them
Or do they grow insensate
        of wonder
Save feeling to brace
        against nostalgia’s cold and calm

In my naive schooling we grew
        liberal arts resumes
Which themselves offered no promise,
        no comforting future
        or pension-thin embrace

Just fucking Solstice trivia of birds named after Alcyone
        Now we brace against two weeks of holiday sales
        aisle after aisle, web page after pop-up window,
             while the dread grows,
And the only thing that can’t get short enough are the days

I let the cold wash in,
and I don’t look back at much

                        Another year lost,
The weight of lists undone,
        of age-unraveled friendships,
             of embraces more desperate than warm,
                  of returning to books I’ve long outgrown,
Thinking that maybe, maybe, there can be that sense of wonder
        when I feel nostalgia for days…
             when I feel

Forgive me that.
The days grow short, and I count,
you know
Wonder which number offers the longest night