Usually I write essays, but lately a few poems have landed in my mind, nearly fully formed. This almost never happens—but I’m rolling with it, saying thank you and only wishing words announced themselves to me this way more often.
One poem will be published elsewhere soon, but for now I’m sharing a second one with you here. Enjoy, friends. And leave a note with any poems you’ve loved lately?
Four months postpartum
What I want is enough
distance to read
my own life.
Everything pressed too close,
the words blurring with
proximity, eyes aching
in the work of translation.
Give me green pastures,
quiet waters, a night away.
An arm outstretched enough to read
these days and interpret
them rightly.
And by rightly I don’t mean
correctly. Just this: space
to study the occasional day
as sacred text. A forgotten carrel
in the library’s corner
where no small hands can reach me.
One dusty hour, air filigreed gold
around my head.
Given the chance,
I might parse from these pages
prophecy and calling
death and rebirth
a record of collapse
and what came after.
"a record of collapse" !!! yes!
Beautiful, friend!