What Respite: poem by Rachel Dacus
- cmbharris
- Dec 24, 2025
- 1 min read
What Respite
What respite from her thrilling toil did ever beauty take
~ Emily Dickinson
The dancer knows mid-air
the muscular cost of a leap,
and she jumps anyway,
then seems to take her leisure
high on that hard-won height.
This is how a new life cradles itself
in muscles and nerves, in hands
that take joy in the freedom of giving
as they pass out food from overflow
to ever-want, a practice
that becomes as easy
as the finches’ songs floating in air.
Love rises and needs no rest;
it finds respite in giving shade
or shelter, as do passing clouds.
Giving becomes no work.
A cloud never works at sailing.
_______________________
Rachel Dacus is the author of seven novels and four poetry collections, with recent work
in Amethyst Review, Eclectica, and Innisfree Poetry Journal, as well as in the anthologies
Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California and Nūr Mélange: A Ghazal Anthology. She lives
with her architect husband and a Silky Terrier in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she
writes and raises funds for good causes. Learn more at: racheldacus.net
December 2025 issue
The more I read this poem, the more I find.
"Love...
...finds respite in giving shade
or shelter, as do passing clouds."