Atlantic Elegy by Julie Marie Wade

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend March 28, 2016   Atlantic Elegy   Julie Marie Wade

We see a little farther now and a little farther still —C. D. Wright                                               *   I ask the rain to remit, but not because I am ungrateful A raincheck for the rain—is such a thing possible?   In Florida, even the cold is warm by comparison We sit at the ocean’s lip as it licks the sand from our toes   Consider instead—the terrifying beauty of alternative                                           * I ask the sun to pumice our faces, blind us humble and good Incumbent sun, so long accustomed to winning the stars’ wars   Consider although—like trying to whistle with a mouth full of Saltines We only know what we know We only see what we see                                             *   I ask the space to persist after the hyphen that separates Birth from death, to leave the parenthesis like a gap tooth   Then to no one in particular, I say: What age is not a tender age?                                             *   This hapless haptic misses her Blackberry Such tender buttons, were they not? The tiny Underwood slick inside her pocket                                             *   I ask the lifeguard not to hang the purple flag For jellyfish and sting rays and the floating terror   Imagine if that were your name!   Also answers to: bluebottle, Physalia physalis, man-of-war                                           * Consider except—Luminara of a word—bag of sand with a light inside Synonym for human perhaps?                                           * I am not opposed to the idea of being lost— like the red balloon, Mylar with a silver underside— buoyed along these stubby waves   Consider forever—which is a trick command   A seagull tugs the string of the beached balloon You see it more clearly now: a webbed design, the visage of Spiderman                                             *   When the rain comes, it is warm kisses, little white beads   Grown-ups stick their tongues out like children do It’s not over till it’s over—and then, too soon            Copyright © 2016 Julie Marie Wade. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “Like so many young and aspiring poets, I started reading C. D. Wright in graduate school. Deepstep Come Shining in particular has remained a marvel and a touchstone for me all these years. In 2006, I finished a collection of six, long, experimental poems with Wright’s intellectual and aesthetic capaciousness in mind. Eight years later, she chose that relentlessly rejected volume, SIX, for the A Room of Her Own Foundation’s To the Lighthouse Prize.  I should have written her a letter of gratitude right then, but I waited, thinking I would have the chance to meet her and thank her in person someday. When Wright died, I thought of Donne: ‘Any [poet’s] death diminishes me because I am involved with [poetry].’  Maybe poems are most needed when we feel most powerless, and what makes us feel more powerless than death?  I reread Deepstep Come Shining and wrote this elegy.” —Julie Marie Wade   Julie Marie Wade is the author of the forthcoming collection SIX (Red Hen Press, 2016). She teaches at Florida International University and lives in Hollywood, Florida. Poetry by Wade   When I Was Straight (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2014) "Deep Lane [June 23rd, evening of the first fireflies]" by Mark Doty "Night Blooming Jasmine" by Giovanni Pascoli "Obscurity and Elegance" by C. D. Wright 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