Ode to Love by Jennifer Militello

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend April 20, 2015   Ode to Love   Jennifer Militello

Place its toothpicked pit in water, watch the grist of its insides grow. Witness its populous bloom,   honeycombed with rough. Its cobblestones grip the heart in its mitt, a closed fist thickened   and gritty as silt. The swamp of the plumb beat adamant as weeds. The dish of which is salted   by complexities or cries. It is a house in which we cannot live, the quiver on the arrow   we cannot launch. It grows late over Nevada as we watch. Strikes its gullies: we grow burnt   as a moth. Mimics a sleep of archives and the small lies all forget. Mimics all laughter   broken by the time it leaves the mouth. With its moving parts, its chimes, its gleam,   it muddies our archways, lying low, gives off noise and steam; its mechanics clear the fence.   It must be wooed. Must be quieted. Hush. It must be soothed. Has a snag. Has a bleed. A drape.   Flaps awkwardly, at its edges, a heron. At its center, a wide bottom perfect with fish.            Copyright © 2015 by Jennifer Militello. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “In this poem, love is an avocado seed aspiring to roots, a grandfather clock, a stocked pond, and a nuclear weapons test. ‘Ode to Love’ features the many ironies love keeps tucked beneath its unwieldy wings.” — Jennifer Militello   Jennifer Militello is the author of Body Thesaurus (Tupelo Press, 2013). She teaches in the MFA program at New England College in New Hampshire. Most Recent Book by Militello   Body Thesaurus (Tupelo Press, 2013) "I Want the Certainty of Love in Another Language" by Christie Ann Reynolds "A fourteen-line poem on Adoration" by Julie Carr "Rime Riche" by Monica Ferrell Read This Poem   For National Poetry Month, we’ve teamed up with 826 National to produce Read This Poem, a celebration of poets in cities with 826 chapters. Read this week’s featured poems by poets from Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. 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