Austerity
by Janet Loxley Lewis
From "Cold Hills"
I have lived so long
On the cold hills alone ...
I loved the rock
And the lean pine trees,
Hated the life in the turfy meadow,
Hated the heavy, sensuous bees.
I have lived so long
Under the high monotony of starry skies,
I am so cased about
With the clean wind and the cold nights,
People will not let me in
To their warm gardens
Full of bees.
Thanks to The Academy of American Poets' poem-a-day at their website, poets.org, for introducing me to this spare, hard gem by
a poet I didn't know
at all.
I think Janet Loxley Lewis' "Austerity" illustrates the old, valid concept that unpleasant messages can still be gifts because of the beauty and impact in their presentation. Who knew that "turfy meadow" could sound almost like profanity? Or the puffy, losing church-league softball team? Who thinks
of bees as "heavy," 
yet they surely can resemble lumbering blimps, or
pornographic invaders, 
once a good witness points out that they are
"sensuous." And the romantic old "starry skies"
are now demoted to "high monotony." Whether or
not I see the night sky that way, I have to admit
that it's an understandable, plausible perspective.
A professor at Stanford and Berkeley, Janet Loxley Lewis (1899-1998) was also the wife of famed literary scholar Yvor Winters.
I wonder if that's why she's not better known in her own right.
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Austerity
by Janet Loxley Lewis
From "Cold Hills"
I have lived so long
On the cold hills alone ...
I loved the rock
And the lean pine trees,
Hated the life in the turfy meadow,
Hated the heavy, sensuous bees.
I have lived so long
Under the high monotony of starry skies,
I am so cased about
With the clean wind and the cold nights,
People will not let me in
To their warm gardens
Full of bees.
Today's poem is in the public domain.
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