"Near Miss" by Fanny Howe

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend June 2, 2017   Near Miss   Fanny Howe

I almost met you On a Saturday In Gloucester. The wind blew easterly. There was a jar of mums On a table near the window.   Their yellows were calling To each other.   Place-names Were put back In the pencil drawer Before I noticed your shadow.              Copyright © 2017 Fanny Howe. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "This is a poem composed by the words themselves, calling out their sounds to each other. Compared to them, listless human longing for an unknown friend amounts to nothing. I can say that the name Gloucester, so resonant in my mind, set off the poem in the first place." —Fanny Howe   Fanny Howe is the author of The Needle's Eye (Graywolf Press, 2016). She lives in Massachusetts.   Photo credit: Ben E. Watkins   Poetry by Howe   The Needle's Eye (Graywolf Press, 2016)  "Chaïm Soutine: The Errant Road, 1939" by Cole Swensen "The Wind" by Alice Notley "Unfollowed Figment" by Lyn Hejinian Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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