Mist Everywhere by Nate Pritts

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend October 15, 2014   Mist Everywhere   Nate Pritts

When the afternoon light touches the broad orange petals of the tiger lilies, mute tongues curled, I pray hard for such joyous sights to continue.   But I pray wrong, selfishly. I don’t know where the words are going.                         I struggle to recall even the names of my old friends.   When I remember, I try to search them out but I don’t have any illusions about their lives.   It rained last night & all day today so the lake I can’t quite see over the tree line is pure frothy white.   There is mist everywhere & I am alone in it.                                         The white light burns my eyes, sears a holy purpose in my human frame.                                              I’m setting out on a new journey, ever faithful. Early on, I walked away from everything, from things I loved.   But now, when I come to the ocean, as I know I will, foaming like some impossible hell, I won’t despair or surrender.   I’ll find a tree, growing from a crag on the shore & I’ll cut it down with the force of my loneliness.    There is the shape of a boat hidden beneath the bark, I know it.                               So I’ll release it, using my most tender memories as tools. I’ll continue.                                               Nothing will block my way.            Copyright © 2014 by Nate Pritts. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “‘Mist Everywhere’ is a meditation on faith—the various mechanisms which help sustain our feeling of it, how we place our very personal understanding of it ‘in’ the natural and unnatural things of this world. It encourages me to remember to approach every interaction, every moment, with humility—to truly receive what is always being offered. —Nate Pritts   Nate Pritts is the author of Right Now More Than Ever (H_NGM_N, 2013).  He lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Most Recent Book by Pritts   Right Now More Than Ever (H Ngm N Books, 2013) "Our Daily Becoming" by Adam Clay "The Coming of Light" by Mark Strand "Red Wand" by Sandra Simonds Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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