The Best Drink by Lee Upton

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 20, 2016   The Best Drink   Lee Upton

The afternotes: orange, a little frangipani,   and then something harsh and mineral:   an old jug rutted out of the ruins of a lost chapel.   But first it was like drinking spring water   lathed by rocks fatty with quartz.    No, it’s inexplicable,   even the way that drink spared our feelings.   That drink liked loneliness and appreciation, lingering appreciation.   Just thinking about that drink creates a kind of yearning   that douses you like sea spray.   I drank that drink and was convinced my body   was flying of its own accord, and why not?    The myth of Icarus is an ugly story   retold and retold and retold   by someone resentful who wasn’t able to drink   the best of the drinks we ever drank.   There was a clear sky in that glass and shaggy pines   and a bit of snowmelt doused in a fire,   and soon a blue shawl drew itself from the rim   and brimmed over us both, and something caught   inside our throats and was released—some old grief.   A grief that, possibly, didn’t even come from us. Or even from our                    ancestors.            Copyright © 2016 Lee Upton. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “Pleasure so often evades accurate description. Nevertheless, sometimes just by trying to describe pleasure we make ourselves happier, thereby creating another form of pleasure.” —Lee Upton   Lee Upton is the author of Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2015). She teaches at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Poetry by Upton   Bottle the Bottles the Bottles the Bottles (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2015) "My Heart" by Kim Addonizio "Song Out Here" by Juan Felipe Herrera "Once in the 40’s" by William Stafford Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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