She Wrote Of Moths

I've long been fascinated by the American poet Adelaide Crapsey, who died prematurely of TB in 1914. She is credited as the inventor of the succinct cinquain form although she also wrote a fair amount of gloomy Victorian-style verse:

"Thy gold hair likes me well
And thy blue eyes," he saith,
Who chooses where he will
And none may hinder - Death.

I have written two poems about her. One is called Adelaide At Saranac, and is in my HappenStance pamphlet, Will I Ever Get To Minsk?
My 2014 collection, Come Close And Listen, includes the following:

The Poet Who Wrote Of Moths

She was
quick and silent,
never seeming
to enter a room.
And on the stroke
of an invisible clock
she vanished
as she'd come.

 

 

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