Proportion by Ben Doller

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend March 3, 2016   Proportion   Ben Doller

Just want things proportional.   Just things, not all.   Not kings, kings should be below:   shoveling, dripping, and most of all—   literally speaking— not people   nothing living need be within our ratio.   I underexaggerate, though:   there’s something to population control,   something impossible yet crucial,   so many ways to be living,   particles, heavy metals, even animals are living.   Kings live too amidst their industries but who would know   and time just want time   to stay excessive   the moment cleaving in threes            Copyright © 2016 Ben Doller. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “Poems are contradictions in their fixity, composed, as they are, by so many moving, breathing, sounding things. I want the universe to be a fair place, to have an evenness to it, but it seems everything is moving away from everything else at its own private speed. Rationally, I want my life to be at least average in length, and to contain a reasonable measure of happiness and pleasure, but honestly, I crave much more than that. And then what if I’m at the short end, allowing the Bell Curve to rise at the middle and extend to the other end?” —Ben Doller   Ben Doller is the author of Fauxhawk (Wesleyan University Press, 2015). He is an associate professor at the University of California, San Diego, and lives in North Park, San Diego.   Photo credit: Sandra Doller  Poetry by Doller   Fauxhawk (Wesleyan University Press, 2015) "First Snow" by Arthur Sze "My Pentagon" by Heather Christle "Representative Character" by Brett Fletcher Lauer Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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