Poetry
Anna Vander Wall
Finding the Found
To me, a some-time stranger to these streets,
that stained-glass lamppost stood stark,
a silhouetted sentinel in an indecisive sky
on a night-time turn from known to new.
To you, owner of the shake-shingled Tudor,
this flame is but a fact a thousand times passed
and a thousand times unseen
on a weary walk from work to wine.
How much such fallow felicity have I
forgot after the first fresh flush? Let me not also lose
the love of your frank face when first I found it
fair and rejoiced as sole possessor of its secret.
Freedom is not a new frontier, a footfall beyond
the brink of a map, a boundary broken in bold desire.
Freedom is not finding all things
shallow, but one thing needful deep.
Anna Vander Wall is an iconographer, poet, and dark academia writer whose books hint at the secret mysticism of places, relationships, and embodied beliefs. Her readers connect with her quirky iceberg characters while experiencing the inherent transcendence of creation through sacred objects, palpable settings, and the cycle of tragedy and rebirth.
Anna enjoys ballroom dancing, chatting with friends around the fire, experimenting with new bakes, and walking with her Goldendoodle Goldberry while observing the small changes of the trees and sky in her neighborhood. You can find her on Substack at https://annavanderwall.substack.com/ and online at https://vanderwallstudios.com/.