Austerity

What a treat from Janet Loxley Lewis; she was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 17, 1899 and she died just a year short of reaching her centenary in 1998. She is yet another poet I have only just discovered… I always thought I was well-read from a poetry point of view, but the joy of it is that I’m not! I have so many new poets to find and poems to read!

Austerity

I have lived so long

On the cold hills alone …

I loved the rock

And the lean pine trees,

Hated the life in the turfy meadow,

Hated the heavy, sensuous bees.

I have lived so long

Under the high monotony of starry skies,

I am so cased about

With the clean wind and the cold nights,

People will not let me in

To their warm gardens

Full of bees.

Janet Loxley Lewis (from ‘Cold Hills’)