Sandra Heska King

daring to open doors

Commit Poetry: Let Evening Come by Jane Kenyon

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Tweetspeak Poetry has formed a “By Heart” Community, and we are memorizing a poem each month. For December it was “Let Evening Come” by Jane Kenyon. Having lived for years in the country and walked the roads in the evenings, I can see these images and hear the night sounds–though a chafing instead of a chirping cricket is new to me. I love that Kenyon was also from Michigan–even though she was a Wolverine. Also, I think this poem might be more than about a simple country evening. What do you think?

Let Evening Come by Jane Kenyon

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don’t
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

Comments

  1. Beautifully recited. There is no chafing in your rendition, for sure. This is one of my favorite poems, Sandy, which I discovered by accident once (or not)? Nothing is random, is it? And yes, it is about so much more, oh so much more. We fight evening, don’t many of us, with our electric lights burning, our screens shining, our feet and hands itching for things yet to do, before finally succumbing to the night, to the bed, to our sleep. And we fight that final evening, don’t we? That final lying down, that closing of the lid, that lowering into the grave, that decaying of the flesh. And whether we fight the night or the long night, evening will come. It always comes. We can do nothing to stop it. And yet, this poem is so hopeful, so filled with promise and truth. We need not fear the night or the final night. Because indeed God will not leave us comfortless. He will not leave us at all. The darkness is as light to Him, and He is with us in it, and awaits us in the morning. So let evening come, because it will hasten the morning. The sun will rise, the dawn will come. And the dead shall live! Thank you so much for sharing this, Sandy. And for memorizing it. I am putting this on my funeral program list! 🙂
    Love
    Lynn

    • Beautiful, Lynn.

      “So let evening come, because it will hasten the morning. The sun will rise, the dawn will come. And the dead shall live!”

      Those are words to hang on to.

      On another note… I did not notice the lipstick on the teeth when I posted this video. Isn’t that humbling?! (Yeah, don’t go look back and look if you didn’t see it.)

      • Thank you for these kind words. And ha! You caught me. I’m the typical catty female, and I turned back and looked…. like Lot’s wife, I’m afraid. But God has not smitten me, perhaps so I can tell you again how beautifully you recited this, how lovely you look (an no, had you not mentioned it, no one would have seen the lipstick), and to say if I could look as good as you in a baseball cap, I’d go into the fashion industry!
        Love you, dear Sandy. Keep writing, reading, and reciting poetry… and above all, sharing it!
        xoxo
        Lynn

  2. Oh, Sandy – the image of the sunset/sunrise – breath taking!
    Thank you for sharing “Let Evening Come” – your voice, the meter, the words I find settling and soothing. I could listen again and again.
    Gratefully,
    Katie

  3. This is a favorite poem. Such beautiful imagery. I use it often in part if not in whole for Services of Remembrance at the retirement community where I work.

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