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      June 27, 2024An Early Autumn Light that Unburies YouSteven Pan

      Image: “Bird Ascending the Fire” by Barbara Hageman Sarvis. “An Early Autumn Light that Unburies You” was written by Steven Pan for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, May 2024, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.
      On earth, everything no longer
      here is here in some variation
       
      of light. An ice age
      half-gone, all geography
       
      shaved off youngest to oldest:
      craters and lakes telling time
       
      in reverse. Someday we’ll end
      up there, you used to say,
       
      pointing to the sun setting
      over the strand. The season
       
      and the leaves, starting
      over again in a dream
       
      with everything that lived
      before this. Is it strange,
       
      how a hurt that looked back
      at you, looks like all of you
       
      in the amber slowness
      before evening. The detour
       
      of your shadow
      somewhere, casting a hook
       
      over the water, perception
      as imprecise as memory
       
      or the autumn lingering
      inside of it. Any year
       
      straying no further
      than the line of a robin’s
       
      wings, the slight lean
      of the trees that said life
       
      held on. If I could call
      you back, would this shore
       
      be the one you’d wait on? How often
      I mistake the sound of the wind
       
      for the sound of your answer.
      Your answer for a goodbye said
       
      aloud. Goodbye for a matter
      of time, or maybe a matter
       
      of timing. Like a bird caught
      mid-flight in the light
       
      of the sky, brimming with everything
      and nothing at once.

       

      from Ekphrastic Challenge

      Comment from the editor, Megan O'Reilly

      “There are many aspects of ‘An Early Autumn Light that Unburies You’ that left an impression, from its smooth flow and musicality to its depth of meaning, but what stands out most, perhaps, is the way it’s peppered with gorgeous and brilliant turns of phrase–so many the effect could be overwhelming in the hands of a less adept poet. In the very same sentence, we find ‘The detour / of your shadow,’ ‘perception / as imprecise as memory’ (a stunningly insightful description), and ‘the autumn lingering / inside of it.’ One could read these lines many times and still be taken by the beauty and profundity of the poet’s language. When I first saw this image, I thought such a dramatic and striking piece of art would be challenging to match. I can’t imagine a better partner than this poem.”

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