Morning Hue Buried Fossil White Oak
Fossil, 1919
by Janet Lewis
reading by Carole Heine
reading by Donna Emory
I found a little ancient fern
Closed in a reddish shale concretion,
As neatly and as charmingly set in
As my grandmother’s face
In a round apricot velvet case.
Fossil, 1975
by Janet Lewis
reading by Donna Emory
Changed and not changed. Three million years.
This sunlight-summoned little fern
Closed in a cenotaph of silt
Lies in my hand, secret and safe.
In quiet dark transformed to stone,
Cell after cell to crystal grown,
The pattern stays, the substance gone.
Changed and not changed. Three million years.
The Spirit, ranging as it will,
In sun, in darkness, lives in change.
Changed and not changed. The spirit hears
In drifting fern the morning air.
Morning Hue Buried Fossil White Oak
oil on canvas
81 x 12”
2018
In Private Collection
Janet Lewis. Poems Old and New 1918-1978. Swallow Press, Ohio University Press, Chicago, IL, 1982, pp 82-83