Were They Hands Would They Flower by Rob Schlegel

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 26, 2014   Were They Hands Would They Flower   Rob Schlegel

Why are you grieving? Because the others are grieving. You are not compelled to grieve independently? The grass needs raking. The grass? The leaves. I will build a fence to keep them from the sea. Then will you help the others? Tollers ring bells even the dead can hear, a ringing such that I am bound to. And the leaves? When they are taken by the waves I give them names, desiring in this act a homecoming to which I am constantly denied on account of other people’s prayers.            Copyright @ 2014 by Rob Schlegel. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “The tiniest things can send you reeling (back) into grief. But what if it isn’t back? What if instead grief could propel you forward into some other becoming? The more I inhabit songs like Sigur Rós’s ‘Ára Bátur,’ the more possible this seems. The crescendo late in the seventh minute pretty much wipes me out every time I hear it. Like the best poetry, ‘Ára Bátur’ simultaneously confirms and contradicts my own internal landscape until I’m finally ruined enough to see more clearly what might succeed grief.” —Rob Schlegel   Rob Schlegel’s most recent book is January Machine (Four Way Books, 2014). He teaches at Whitman College and lives in Walla Walla, Washington. Most Recent Book by Schlegel   January Machine  (Four Way Books, 2014) “Curtains” by Ruth Stone “Hum” by Ann Lauterbach “The Not Tale (Funeral)” by Caroline Bergvall Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. 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.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038