When He Read Me "Landschaft" by Georg Trakl

By Anya Shroff

When He Read Me "Landschaft" by Georg Trakl

By fourth year Erin O’Keefe

Once the sun has fallen down the hillside

I will recline on my soft and sweet bed. 

Resting within the clouds I will reside

And dream of those words you earlier said.

I am a hyacinth cherub tonight;

I see a dove to my own window pane

Basking under the soft yellow lamplight, 

Looking across the sermon stonéd lane. 

The bridge lies beyond your sweet peaceful words

That meet my ears in a tongue unlike mine, 

I dream that night of those white little birds

That bear the name of you within my mind. 

Warm petrichor hangs in the thick night air 

As the lines of the poem leave your lips

And rain drops into my hyacinth hair

Before the sun behind the tower slips.

To this moment I leave sometimes again

When I think of crossing the sublime sea

And walking midnight streets with you, but then

I remember my dream vanished when we

parted ways with an embrace, I left you,

Ran behind those blue gates to the small church

To fall onto my knees and pray. I knew

That signs from you I would forever search. 

And when I wake again I will then find

You are still reading in my peaceful mind.