Heavy by Hieu Minh Nguyen

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend January 27, 2017   Heavy   Hieu Minh Nguyen

The narrow clearing down to the river I walk alone, out of breath   my body catching on each branch. Small children maneuver around me.   Often, I want to return to my old body a body I also hated, but hate less   given knowledge. Sometimes my friends—my friends   who are always beautiful & heartbroken look at me like they know   I will die before them. I think the life I want   is the life I have, but how can I be sure? There are days when I give up on my body   but not the world. I am alive. I know this. Alive now   to see the world, to see the river rupture everything with its light.            Copyright © 2017 Hieu Minh Nguyen. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "The poem is about the little moments of love I have for the world, but also my body, which allows me to attend the world." —Hieu Minh Nguyen   Hieu Minh Nguyen is the author of Not Here (Coffee House Press, forthcoming in 2018). He lives in Minneapolis. Poetry by Nguyen   This Way to the Sugar (Write Bloody Publishing, 2014) "The Niagara River" by Kay Ryan "from The Uses of the Body" by Deborah Landau "The Body Is the Victory and the Defeat of Dreams" by Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. If you enjoy Poem-a-Day, please consider making a donation to help make it possible. 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