PART OF A POEM

A partial excerpt from 

The Magpie's Shadow

The Magpie's Shadow

by Yvor Winters

I. IN WINTER

Myself

Pale mornings, and 
   I rise. 

Still Morning

Snow air--my fingers curl.

Awakening

New snow, O pine of dawn!

Winter Echo

Thin air! My mind is gone.

The Hunter

Run! In the magpie's shadow.

No Being

I, bent. Thin nights receding. 

The Magpie's Shadow was published in 1922 as a collection of short, experimental poems. While studying at the University of Chicago, Winters was diagnosed with tuberculosis and decided to relocate to Santa Fe, New Mexico, for the sake of his health. His early poems, published in 1921 and 1922, were all written at a tuberculosis sanitarium.