Island by Greg Wrenn

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 13, 2015   Island   Greg Wrenn

I took the night train there, never dreaming. To cross the straits my boxcar crept onto a barge—there was screeching, several tremendous thuds, then with a growl we sailed. I was already half-awake, anxious for a volcano, neolithic shrines, islands to explore off the main island… At my stop, early morning’s tarnish fell on a shuttered newspaper stand and torn campaign posters. A child playing near a livestock car sang about a weapon detonated in another nation, another hemisphere.   From the station and the song, I walked up the mountain road to a garden where grizzly men with camera phones greeted me, sleep still in the corners of their eyes, bougainvillea around their tents. I was to be eternalized and therefore loved. They waxed my nose and powdered my nether regions. After oatmeal and coffee, I was Jupiter’s— his bardash, his Ganymede, ningle, ingle, trug—bracing against a Doric column.   I felt numb a night later as rosemary blew through the lava fields.            Copyright © 2015 by Greg Wrenn. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “This speaker, seeking renewal, takes a journey from continent to island, train station to campsite. And yet it also feels as if he crosses over to some mythic, self-absorbed world where he seeks out violation, and the truth of his condition throbs: he is alone.” —Greg Wrenn   Greg Wrenn is the author of Centaur (University of Wisconsin Press, 2013). He teaches at Stanford University and lives in Oakland, California.   Photo credit: Pak Han Most Recent Book by Wrenn   Centaur (University of Wisconsin Press, 2013) "Strike-Slip" by Arthur Sze "The Road from Biloxi" by Khaled Mattawa "Afterwards" by Philip Schultz Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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