Our Daily Becoming by Adam Clay

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend July 9, 2014   Our Daily Becoming   Adam Clay

Like animals moving daily through the same open field, it should be easier to distinguish light from dark, fabrications from memory, rain on a sliver of grass from dew appearing overnight. In these moments of desperation, a sentence serves as a halo, the moon hidden so the stars eclipse our daily becoming. You think it should be easier to define one’s path, but with the clouds gathering around our feet, there’s no sense in retracing where we’ve been or where your tired body will carry you. Eventually the birds become confused and inevitable. Even our infinite knowledge of the forecast might make us more vulnerable than we would be in drawn-out ignorance. To the sun all weeds eventually rise up.            Copyright @ 2014 by Adam Clay. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “This poem examines the constant flow of information we encounter each day and what this exchange does to the mind and the way we view ourselves. As we interact with the world in a macro way, oftentimes the microscopic view gets lost in the shuffle. We don’t even understand what’s right in front of us.” —Adam Clay   Adam Clay is the author of A Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World (Milkweed Editions, 2012). He teaches at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Most Recent Book by Clay   A Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World (Milkweed Editions, 2012) “Becoming Weather, 21” by Chris Martin “A Line-storm Song” by Robert Frost “An Octave Above Thunder” by Carol Muske-Dukes Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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