Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THIN ICE, by JAMES HARRISON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THIN ICE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Now this paste of ash and water
Last Line: This cold's life, death's steamy mark and target.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Absence; Atlantic Ocean; Death; Ice; Separation; Isolation; Dead, The


Now this paste of ash and water;
water slipping over ice, greenish

brown water, white ice, November ice,
thin as glass, shot with air.

The kinglet, soundless, against the yellow
grapeleaves of the arbor, smallest of birds;

shrill day, the blowing, oily Atlantic off
Strong's Neck; the salt smell drifts, blown

through the newish Cape Cod homes.
On such days children fall down wells,

or drown falling through thin first ice,
or fall reaching after the last apple

the picker neglected, the tree leafless,
the apple spoiled anyway by frost; toad freezes,

snake's taken his hole; the cat makes much
shorter trips; dog's bark is louder.

The green has floated from earth, moved south,
or drifted upward at night, invisible to us.

Man walks, throwing off alone thin heat;
this cold's life, death's steamy mark and target.





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