Suffering the Unattainable by David Dodd Lee

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend July 16, 2014   Suffering the Unattainable   David Dodd Lee

Large sea turtles and some whales will outlive us, water a manifestation of wind in    another dimension. I had to use the shovel to hack at the wood, had to grab a hatchet, down deep in the hole. The oak pitched around like a ship’s mast, or I was no longer alive; perhaps I was yet     to be all over again, though I kept recalling your name. The verdurous roots.            Copyright @ 2014 by David Dodd Lee. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “The world is split, and in more than half of it passion plays itself out in slow motion, a creaturely nobility is in place. I live on the water, and if I can catch sight of a large softshell turtle turning its way back to deep water as my canoe crosses over it, I consider myself lucky. In the third line the poem turns slightly frantic. The speaker must act. It’s a poem about desire/beauty and the problem/gift of mortality. It’s therefore also a love poem. And also plays with ideas of reincarnation. When man and creature meet on a path, we know we are in the same world, although I feel like the interloper. Sometimes you meet a human being who is similarly wild at heart.” —David Dodd Lee   David Dodd Lee is the author of Animalities (Four Way Books, 2014). He teaches at Indiana University South Bend and lives in Osceola, Indiana. Most Recent Book by Lee   Animalities  (Four Way Books, 2014) “harbor (the conversion)” by Nick Flynn “Half Mile Down” by Michael Ryan “Inland” by Edna St. Vincent Millay Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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