Poem - “A Chaplet for Lana”

I doubt you are quiet even now 

And why should you be 

–

Now that your voice is unclasped 

From the coarse line of our limitations 

–

Your words freed from their pins 

Like white-sleeved spectres 

–

Caught in a breeze or untangled 

From the strophes of your skirt 

–

As you walked unhurried 

             Toward a world bent west

–

Arriving always 

To the chime of fresh things 

–

And what more you can say now  

That every port is yours 

–

Yours our unreachable provinces 

–

This poem, from the poetry volume The Diener by Martha Serpas, honors the memory of Lana Schwebel, who was assistant professor of religion and literature at Yale Divinity School and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music from 2002-06. She died in 2007 after a car accident in Siberia. On the acknowledgement page of The Diener, the poet says the poem is for Lana’s parents, Lilly and Philip Schwebel.

“A Chaplet for Lana” from The Diener. Copyright © 2015 by Martha Serpas. Reprinted by permission of LSU Press. See lsupress.org.