The Well at Castle Forchtenstein, 1986

 

 

Night flows over a circle of stone

from above,

darkness curving between the stars,

the grip of day grown

 

weak. A flake of snow floats

down past granite walls

to drop upon a pool unseen...

 

you must be patient.

 

The shaft is hollow.

There is no sound.

 

Perhaps there is no bottom,

no pool,

no granite,

no cluster of stars.

 

How can day or night exist

while a vacant well

pauses

in the autumn?

 

Richard Hacken