Alexander Etheridge

Silent Question
after W.S. Merwin
 
It was a long time ago now
I was a boy
in a different life
sitting on my grandmother’s porch
staring out at the trees
always staring through
the clear air of seasons
at two towering white elms
 
They were distant
so I loved them more
I felt they were part of
another world
another age
 
I could watch for hours their
branches waving calmly in breezes
 
They asked for
nothing nor answered
any question
 
except for the one I
knew there were no words for
 


Sound of Grace
 
We keep one eye on the sun, and one
on the moon—Our lives are spent
in the battles between
night and day—We walk all night
over shadows and snow, waiting
for dawn, when shadows change
around us, each one lengthening
in such quiet--
 
One voice tell us
to step into the dark lake,
another says to climb up fire
in the sky.
And there’s the voice saying
to ignore every voice,
to let yourself be taken
by a silence
lying between
sun and moon, scorches
and snowfall—an immeasurable hush
of grace, where the first light
meets the first dark.

Alexander Etheridge has been developing his poems and translations since 1998. His poems have been featured in The Potomac Review, Museum of Americana, Ink Sac, Welter Journal, The Cafe Review, The Madrigal, Abridged Magazine, Susurrus Magazine, The Journal, Roi Faineant Press, and many others. He was the winner of the Struck Match Poetry Prize in 1999, and a finalist for the Kingdoms in the Wild Poetry Prize in 2022. He is the author of, God Said Fire, and, Snowfire and Home.