_90. Earthly Witness

Oh to be a Romantic!
To haunt the wide meadows
of Grantchester or summer
bluffs of Exmoor drenched
in the sublime excesses of inspiration.
Even the brutal, craggy Alpine peaks
of Switzerland would present only
an opportunity to briefly ascend
closer to heaven on Earth.
I’d take the ugly realities,
the tuberculosis, classism,
crippling restraint–
worth it to see the sunny ecstasies
of springtime and know them
for what they are,
to capture them perfectly with a pen
and desire.