Quaker Arts OnLine
ONLINE LITERARY MAGAZINE OF THE
FELLOWSHIP OF QUAKERS IN THE ARTS
Issue #1, SUMMER 1998

Two poems by Candace Rodman Zhang

Quaker Grey

Stormy skies and northern eyes
Subdued days of rain and mountain mist
Weathered woolens, friendly flannels
Sleek hunters and matched dapples

Cells, matter, ashes and areas
Fatigued, faded yet fiery faces
Gulls, gouaches, clouds and clays
Wild wolves, doubtful doves

Coiled braids bent over quotidian quilts
Tempered temples, barks and battleships
Tin and pewter, slate and steel

Pearl and squirrel, smoky quartz
Homespun hodden, bonnets and broadfalls
Gravel crunching underfoot after Meeting.

Hope Well

(Dublin, Indiana)

Turn where the proud, two-story dairy barn stood until recently,
Before you get to the spot where the log meetinghouse once          stood
The tiny, withered graves all that remain,
Back of the main road, behind the drying corn wall.

Pass the farms where members once resides
Close enough for midweek meetings,
A community now stretched across states
Tied by hidden bonds of love and memories.

Pull in at the gingko tree, its leaves fallen,
Next to the little,white, almost nameless building
With no belfry, bell or pastor,
On the corner where the schoolhouse once was.

Enter the walls soaked in warm embraces and loving thoughts
From generations of not-so-simple souls now past or gone,
Their spirituality lingering, invisible to the eye,
Well-hoped for but not seen --

Felt.
_____________________

A note: By the way, this poem came about as a response to the difficulty one has in giving directions to Hopewell Meeting in Indiana, as well as the confusion over all the different Hopewells. It was once the center of the community, the oldest group of worshippers in the county, etc., but is now a community of interest.

Copyright � by Candace Rodman Zhang

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