Jane Kenyon didn't live a long life and she did not write a great number of poems but many of those she did write are exceptionally beautiful and lovely. A friend of mine, Mary Ann, died back in January. "Let Evening Come," a favorite of mine, and, though I had not known it, also a favorite of Mary Ann's, was included in the eulogy.

Let Evening Come

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.