Between Blue Shadows

(Garden Shadows and Trees by Jeannette Hayes - found here)

Tall aspens,

but no movement

not a single leaf

—it’s all so still.

And the low bushes

simply won’t dare

to move at all,

when the tall ones nearby

that reach for the sky

don’t dare move — or can’t move.

It’s now so still.

And here’s where you’ve

finally ended up,

still angry

from those painful words

sharp-edged

like an axe,

or like the mountain ridges to the west

in the glow of twilight

—the way they are right now.

It’s far away, the swaying meadow

is full of rich confusion

—don’t think about those words.

Here the blue shadows settle

and birds fall silent

as they roost in the silence.

You no longer know

in the midst of this

if what it was that hurt

still matters.

~Tarjei Vesaas  (Translated from the Norwegian by R. J. Dent)