The Subject of Retreat by Yona Harvey

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend February 9, 2015   The Subject of Retreat   Yona Harvey

Your black coat is a door in the storm. The snow we don’t mention clings to your boots & powders & puffs. & poof. Goes. Dust of the fallen. Right here at home. The ache of someone gone-missing. Walk it off like a misspoken word. Mound of snow. Closed door. I could open it.   Or maybe just, you know— brush it off.   Then what? The snow on the other side. The sound of what I know & your, no, inside it.            Copyright © 2015 by Yona Harvey. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “Writing this poem I was thinking of strangers helping to dig a friend’s car out of the snow; how that friend, born in France, once expressed frustration with Americans who teach children to fear strangers; why snowfall in Pittsburgh can feel routine and defeating; domestic abuse; and how to collapse those thoughts into one space.” —Yona Harvey   Yona Harvey is the author of Hemming the Water (Four Way Books, 2013). She teaches at the University of Pittsburgh and lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Most Recent Book by Harvey   Hemming the Water  (Four Way Books, 2013) "Footprint on Your Heart" by Gary Lenhart "Untitled [Toward night]" by Kevin Goodan "Snow" by Naomi Shihab Nye Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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