Elizabeth Martina Bishop

The Wind that Shakes the Barley Elizabeth Martina Bishop

This poetic evocation of spirit is part of a controlled semiotics ultimately contrasting with the force of a wind that can suddenly blow through a field, changing everything in an instant. The flowing of the wind of spirit can surrender a harvest consisting of many days or even a few days whereby we can enjoy the sound of the wind and the soughing touch of the wind on the body. While the wind of spirit may know how to touch us, perhaps we will never understand the density of the soul force doggedly following us all our days, no matter how long or short. In the song of the wind, the poet hears verses that can be gathered up in sheaves later crafted with the constraints of formal verse or let loose in free verse. Though we may never catch up with the force of the mind of wind as we learn to breathe and to sing with the voice of the wind, we can begin to understand the music of the universe is composed as a soul song sung from the deepest core of Mother Earth. So, expect the poet will keep on listening and will keep on hoping to catch up with words wafted along the lines of a strong or a gentle wind.