Station 40, Chiriu: the Poet Ariwara no Narihira at Eight Bridges by Debora Greger

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend June 30, 2014   Station 40, Chiriu: the Poet Ariwara no Narihira at Eight Bridges   Debora Greger

What is sky but water, more water, crossed by eight bridges? Is the ancient poet in a rush to reach land? No, he’s already one of the Six Immortals. How long before the papery iris-petals he admires wrinkle? They barely grow beards. In a thousand years, pilgrims will come. They will stand where he stood. Where, they will ask, are the flowers that empurpled his poem?            Copyright @ 2014 by Debora Greger. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “The poem is a section from a sequence inspired by the Pairs Series of Tokaido Road prints. The sequence was commissioned by the Harn Museum of Art in Gainesville, Florida to accompany an exhibition in 2014.” —Debora Greger   Debora Greger is the author of By Herself (Penguin Books, 2012). Professor Emerita of the University of Florida, she is Poet-in-Residence at the Harn Museum of Art in Gainesville, Florida, where she lives. Most Recent Book by Greger   By Herself  (Penguin Books, 2012) “All those Attempts in the Changing Room!” by Anne Stevenson “Die Muhle Brennt--Richard” by Richard Matthews “Museum Guard” by David Hernandez Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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