First Things RSS Feed - Mark S. Bauer https://www.firstthings.com/author/mark-s-bauer en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:51:15 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/mark-s-bauer 60 Winter Wind https://www.firstthings.com/article/2013/01/winter-wind https://www.firstthings.com/article/2013/01/winter-wind Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0500 Leaf-laden lately, beech limbs once reached
the ground, swaying. Lightened now, choreic, bare,
they twitch. An abandoned wasp nest
scuds across the yard. The nest is dashed
against the garden shed and drops to rest
among discarded flowerpots, each smashed
to shards so long ago the sun has bleached
them gray. It totters, then lodges there,
gray, too, and trapped among the shards. Held fast
and peeled, its catacombed, translucent skin
is flung away in layers, drifting like ash,
catching on bark, raised roots, spent tufts of grass
until the labyrinth within?
floats ply by tight-wound ply away at last.

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]]> Quaker Meeting, Late Winter https://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/12/quaker-meeting-late-winter https://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/12/quaker-meeting-late-winter Sat, 01 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0500 I watch the dust motes dance, be tossed
on eddies in the sun-streak
in its minute advance across
the meetinghouse floor

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