Poet Gregory Scofield’s ode to longing and love: “I’ve Looked For You”

Gregory Scofield’s collection of poetry, Love Medicine and One Song (Kegedonce Press), is a sensuous journey of erotica indigena, and better Valentine verse you will not find. Read a morsel here for yourself, then buy the book for you and your hunny now.

I’ve Looked For You

in the blackest night, calling
at the edge of a cliff
knowing, should you answer,
I’d grow wings.

I’ve looked for you

in the likeliest of places:
prairie cafés, washrooms in Arizona,
airports connecting countries
and lovers and

I’ve seen you, tall as a cedar,
reaching to the heavens,
wings of raven on top
trimmed short, neat and convincing

my hopeful eyes
till you felt their burning
and turned around.
I’ve searched for you

breathless and parched
as the gauzy summer,
drank your name
from water fountains

and remained thirsty. I’ve pressed
my face to the very moon,
cursed the stars from the sky
knowing as I do

the dark is to blame,
how big the world really is
and chances are small, fleeting
with each passing day

and yet, I am here
falling from so many edges
even the rocks below
know your silence.

If you like what you see (and how could you not) and happen to live in or near Waterloo or London, ON, you are in great luck. Scofield will be reading at St. Jerome’s University on Feb. 15 and then Fanshawe College on Feb. 17.