The Sunlight by Miguel Murphy

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 30, 2016   The Sunlight   Miguel Murphy

You wouldn’t know it could feel so redundant— the wolfish starlings plunder the grass and nothing burns. Big Sur. We came here to rest. The coast, a color. The thought of nothing, the blue middle of my life—                                                     A cliff side and a footpath down to the small beach. And fire, there a cold wind. Long waves the whole year—restless, leafy and metallic,                                        the brightness of ash. The sunlight like something from Tarkovsky, one pointless, small ambition in which passion turns into a terrifying tenderness. Deep cargo in the hull; heartache. And somehow you knew you should light the match, like a person condemned to whom the starlight is another brief monument to what                                                                   is fallible. Your life, little fireling, little warlike starling, flickering indignantly, all erotic umbrage. Broken wing in my hand. Pathological, shy flame, I will care for you. Little shape of my fate, my certain failure. What                                      is desire, if not this burden. Dearth and glut cupped in your hands: wild, deadheaded, and blue.            Copyright © 2016 Miguel Murphy. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “You know, you drive up to Big Sur thinking you’re going to relax. Being alone is a little hike down to the secret beach and being alive is like a performance piece that no one will see but you. How fantastically pointless! The ocean flickers, your match flame flickers and then goes out. It’s really not a moment you can share. You feel like your whole life is on repeat here. You don’t want to, but you care about this intensely, and you don’t really understand why.” —Miguel Murphy   Miguel Murphy is the author of Detainee (Barrow Street Press, 2016). He teaches at Santa Monica College and lives in Los Angeles, California. Poetry by Murphy   Detainee (Barrow Street Press, 2016) "Magdalene" by Marie Howe "Ever" by Meghan O’Rourke "California Plush" by Frank Bidart Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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