AFTERNOON WALK: THE SEA RANCH

-in memory of E.L.G.

Late light, uneven mole-gnawed meadow,
gullies, freshets, falls, whose start and speckle
Hopkins would have loved - and you - you too,
who loved the sheen and shade, the forest dapple
where grass meets cypress just beyond the house-
you’d praise the mushroom-sprout, the chilly glisten
as the hedgerow folds into the solstice
and suddenly the last crisp leaves unfasten.

This time of year, this place, light dims at the pace
of a long late walk-light seems to slow
and sorrow as the meadow turns its face
into your unlived season, the winter hollow
where only a steep sky, in quarter inches,
adjusts descending sun, ascending branches.

-Sandra M. Gilbert

Berklee’s poetry Walk was laid in October 2003 along Edison Street between Shattuck and Milvia Streets. The route includes 128 metal plates with excerpts from songs, each of which is related in one way or another to the city of Berkeley.

The current sign features a poem written by the feminist poet Sandra Gilbert (1936). Gilbert, who was also an English professor, lives in Berkeley.
She dedicated the song to her late husband Eliot L. Gilbert