Boketto by Susan Rich

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend June 10, 2016   Boketto   Susan Rich

Outside my window it’s never the same— some mornings jasmine slaps the house, some mornings sorrow.   There is a word I overheard today, meaning lost not on a career path or across a floating bridge:   Boketto—to stare out windows without purpose. Don’t laugh; it’s been too long since we leaned   into the morning: bird friendly coffee and blueberry toast. Awhile since I declared myself a prophet of lost cats—blind lover   of animal fur and feral appetites. Someone should tag a word for the calm of a long marriage. Knowledge   the heat will hold, and our lights remain on—a second sight that drives the particulars of a life: sea glass and salt,   cherry blossoms and persistent weeds. What assembles in the middle distance beyond the mail truck; have I overlooked oceans,   ignored crows? I try to exist in the somehow, the might still be— gaze upward to constellations of in-between.            Copyright © 2016 Susan Rich. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “The Japanese word, Boketto, describes something so familiar to me, it’s as if a piece of myself has been returned. I’ve altered the definition by including that the ‘gazing without purpose’ needs to happen by a window.” —Susan Rich   Susan Rich is the author of Cloud Pharmacy (White Pine Press, 2014). She teaches at Highline College and lives in Seattle, Washington.   Photo credit: Rosanne Olson Poetry by Rich   Cloud Pharmacy (White Pine Press, 2014) "The Hour Until We See You" by Brenda Hillman "The Hour and What Is Dead" by Li-Young Lee "For Sale" by Margo Taft Stever Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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