Green Snake, when I hung you round my neck
and stroked your cold, pulsing throat
as you hissed to me, glinting
arrowy gold scales, and I felt
the weight of you on my shoulders,
and the whispering silver of your dryness
sounded close at my ears --
Green Snake--I swore to my companions that certainly
you were harmless! But truly
I had no certainty, and no hope, only desiring
to hold you, for that joy,
which left
a long wake of pleasure, as the leaves moved
and you faded into the pattern
of grass and shadows, and I returned
smiling and haunted, to a dark morning.
To The Snake
Denise Levertov
(1)
Poem topics: dark, hope, joy, silver, pleasure, grass, long, cold, morning, gold, hold, throat, green, snake, I love you, I miss you, Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
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