Let evening come

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung.
Let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don’t
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

– Jane Kenyon

Last weekend I read Donald Hall’s The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon and it devastated me.  Plain-spoken and hugely powerful, this book is an elegy for his life’s great companion, gone too soon.  In his hands, the everyday shimmers.

9 thoughts on “Let evening come”

  1. I love these posts…but I sorely miss seeing the more acquisitive side of you! When will you post about shoes, clothes, pretty things, jewelry, design, etc? You have excellent taste…in fact, I think you can develop a thriving side job as a fashion blogger

    I think you were the one who introduced me to Bee Eadie’s Atlantic Pacific blog. Now, whenever I go through Etsy, I think, I wonder what Lindsey Mead would say about this item? Would she raise an eyebrow at this outfit? What does she think about the whole neon thing????
    I’m looking for a new handbag that’s made in America, but I keep thinking, I want to ask Lindsey if this is fashionable or this is just plain questionable…

    Your fans want to see the Vogue reader come out!

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