Vestiges by A. Van Jordan

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 27, 2015   Vestiges   A. Van Jordan

I would like to swim in the Atlantic, to swim with someone who understood why my fear of drowning plays less dire   than my fear of bones, walking the ocean floor. I would like to sync my stroke with a beloved. I’d like to stand on deck on a boat   and jump in the sea and say, follow me, and know you would. The sea is cold and it’s deep, too, I’d joke,   standing at the edge of the boat’s bow. A wind breathes across the sea, joining gently the edges of time.   With a dog paddling behind me, I want to crawl across the water without thinking about a future.   I have set my eyes upon the shore and I hold you there—steady, in focus— but let you go when, from below,   a voice breaks to the surface.            Copyright © 2015 by A. Van Jordan. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “I’ve been returning, again and again, to Rilke, and so this poem borrows a good deal of its structure from him. Also, I turned fifty this year, and one of my meditations has been on how often experiences and lessons from my past, some good and some bad, come back to me—guiding my steps, providing strength—in the present.” —A. Van Jordan   A. Van Jordan is the author of The Cineaste (W. W. Norton, 2013). He is the Henry Rutgers Presidential Professor at Rutgers University–Newark.   Photo credit: Tamara Gallegos Most Recent Book by Jordan   The Cineaste (W. W. Norton, 2013) "forgetting something" by Nick Flynn "The Past" by Michael Ryan "Before" by Ada Limón Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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