Vapor by Martin Rock

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend July 1, 2016   Vapor   Martin Rock

Tonight I’m to occupy a single breath: to let it slowly out as an open kettle might release its steam, left long on the stove. Eventually all substance turns to vapor   & accumulates in the air, then falls again as a globe under its own weight. Bodies must be near each other, it seems, even when the result is simple collapse.   Only the globe is never falling— it’s the thing that imitates the globe falls into it, as I now imitate, & fail,   the voice of my father, who sits breathing with his dog at the mouth of the river. My breath, too, rises & falls. Listen.            Copyright © 2016 Martin Rock. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “This poem is a meditation on gravity and regeneration. My dad is a Buddhist and an activist who was extradited from South Africa in the ’70s for protesting against apartheid and now organizes to confront climate change; his dog is long dead. Sometimes I measure my work against his and find it lacking.” —Martin Rock   Martin Rock is the author of Residuum (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2016). He is a PhD candidate in creative writing and literature at the University of Houston. Poetry by Rock   Residuum (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2016)    "Hay for the Horses" by Gary Snyder "Loving Working" by Naomi Shihab Nye "Song Out Here" by Juan Felipe Herrera Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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