Walk On, Walk Away by Afaa Michael Weaver

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend July 26, 2016   Walk On, Walk Away   Afaa Michael Weaver

Can we just stay here in the space where our loud laughing won’t disturb the mausoleum of St. Peter, three times denying the purple iris, can we hobble the horses to the hitching post in front of the post office and let everything fall out of where we put it to be delivered, can we call the night choir of crickets down here to make the road home sing while the lightning bugs show us the way to a happy wages of sin so then we will not dare cry when the trumpet hits the high note of getting up in the morning, going back to be counted by the straw bosses, and to count them, making note of how sure this Earth is, this world of work we define ourselves, as long as we know it will need us, as long as guarantees paint themselves against the invisible ley lines pulling mountains together, summoning snow caps in California over the broad brown hills laying up to hear God’s whims like fallen but contented angels.            Copyright © 2016 Afaa Michael Weaver. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “‘Walk On, Walk Away’ is intended to celebrate the spirit of American laborers. The poem is from my newest manuscript, ‘A Righteous Union of Things,’ a collection of poems exploring my own life as a veteran of fifteen years (1970-85), as a semi-skilled factory worker in my native Baltimore, and, by extension, an exploration and celebration of America’s working class culture.” —Afaa Michael Weaver   Afaa Michael Weaver is the author of The City of Eternal Spring (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014). He teaches in Drew University’s MFA program and lives in West Cornwall, Connecticut. Poetry by Weaver   The City of Eternal Spring (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014)   "Coming Close" by Philip Levine "Lunch With the Sole Survivor" by Kenneth Fearing "The Day I Saw Barack Obama Reading Derek Walcott’s Collected Poems" by Yusef Komunyakaa Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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