More Stones by Andrea Cohen

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend July 28, 2015   More Stones   Andrea Cohen

for Philip Levine   Donald Justice has died twice: once in Miami, in the sun, on a Sunday, and once in Iowa City, on a Friday in August, which was not without its own sun—if not bright spot. The first time he died, he was thinking of Vallejo, who died in Paris, maybe on a Thursday, surely in rain. Vallejo died again in Paris, in April, of an unknown illness which may have been malaria, as fictionalized in Bolaño’s Monsieur Pain. “There is, brothers, very much to do,” Vallejo said between his deaths, and Phil, you must have died once in Seville, in the land of Machado, before going again last Saturday in Fresno, so you no longer write to us or bring in trash bins filled with light. Phil, I will die, maybe on a Sunday in Wellfleet, because today it is Sunday, and ice is jamming the eaves, and there is nowhere to put the snow that keeps recalling all those other snows— or the stones on more stones.            Copyright © 2015 by Andrea Cohen. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “I never know where a poem is headed, but I was thinking of Phil Levine. He was my teacher when I was a kid of nineteen, and his poetry, guidance, and encouragement meant/mean more than he’d have known.” —Andrea Cohen   Andrea Cohen is the author of Furs Not Mine (Four Way Books, 2015). She directs the Blacksmith House Poetry Series in Cambridge, Massachusetts.   Photo Credit: Francesca G. Bewer Poetry by Cohen   Furs Not Mine (Four Way Books, 2015) "Our Valley" by Philip Levine from "Gabriel" by Edward Hirsch "Watching the Sea Go" by Dana Levin Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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