Poem-A-Day: Another Country by Ryan Teitman

Guest Editor: Jane Hirshfield, Academy of American Poets Chancellor, January 9, 2014 Another Country by Ryan Teitman     The days unfold like maps. Fresh dirt in the garden, black as cake, grows warm.   The roses perform a silent recital, each playing its part from memory. I wait   for my father the way men wait for a train. I wait for my father the way a dancer   waits for music. My mother is a curtain in the window. She calls me in   to fit my shadow for a suit. I keep still as she pinches the tape around its wrist.   Around her neck my mother's pearls clink like teeth. Your shadow grows   faster than you do, she says. She says that waiting is a kind of dancing.   At night I dance with the stillness. My blood waits behind my chest   like a man behind a locked door. My father waits in another country.     Copyright © 2014 by Ryan Teitman. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem "When I need inspiration, I often turn to the poems of Larry Levis. This particular poem came into being after a rereading of Levis's strange, beautiful poem 'The Map.'"   --Ryan Teitman Most Recent Book by Teitman Litany for the City (BOA Editions, 2012)               Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive.     Ryan Teitman is the author of the poetry collection Litany for the City (BOA Editions, 2012). He teaches at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania.   Related Poems Playgrounds by Laurence Alma-Tadema A Situation for Mrs. Biswas  by Prageeta Sharma  Fishing in Winter by Ralph Burns  __________________________ Love reading Poem-A-Day? Help support it today.     Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.

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