Poem-A-Day: Ephemeral Stream by Elizabeth Willis

January 2, 2014 Ephemeral Stream by Elizabeth Willis   This is the way water  thinks about the desert.  The way the thought of water  gives you something  to stumble on. A ghost river.  A sentence trailing off  toward lower ground.  A finger pointing  at the rest of the show.    I wanted to read it.  I wanted to write a poem  and call it "Ephemeral Stream"  and dedicate it to you  because you made of this  imaginary creek  a hole so deep  it looked like a green eye  taking in the storm,  a poem interrupted  by forgiveness.    It's not over yet.  A dream can spend  all night fighting off  the morning. Let me  start again. A stream  may be a branch or a beck,  a crick or kill or lick,  a syke, a runnel. It pours  through a corridor. The door  is open. The keys  are on the dashboard.      Copyright © 2014 by Elizabeth Willis. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem  "An ephemeral stream flows intermittently or seasonally, leaving a record of water, though there's rarely water flowing in it. You can find them etched in the arid landscapes of the West and Southwest. I learned this term while walking with friends in the hills near Ucross, Wyoming." --Elizabeth Willis   Most Recent Book by Willis Address (Wesleyan University Press, 2012)              Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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.     Elizabeth Willis is the author of numerous books of poetry, including Address (Wesleyan University Press, 2012). She currently serves as the Shapiro-Silverberg professor of literature and creative writing at Wesleyan University.  Related Poems Somewhere between here and Belen by Jay Wright Part of Eve's Discussion by Marie Howe  At the Very Beginning by Katie Peterson  __________________________ 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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