"A Better Life" by Randall Mann

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend July 17, 2017   A Better Life   Randall Mann

after Julio Cortázar   It's silly to think fourteen years ago I turned thirty.   How I made it that far I'll never know. In this city of hills,   if there was a hill I was over it. Then. (In queer years,   years are more than.) Soon it will be fifteen   since the day I turned thirty. It's so remote. I didn't think I'd make it   to fourteen years ago. Fear lives in the chest like results.   You say my gray, it makes me look extinguished; you make me cringe.   I haven't cracked the spines of certain paperbacks, or learned a sense of direction,   even with a slick device. But the spleen doesn't ask twice, and soon it will be fifteen years   since I turned thirty. Which may not sound like a lot. Which sounds like the hinge   of a better life: It is, and it is not.            Copyright © 2017 Randall Mann. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "I wrote this poem on the cusp of my forty-fifth birthday; in what is likely the middle of my life, I often feel mystified, invisible, but also incredibly lucky—because I'm still here. This poem borrows the form of 'Policronías,' one of my favorites by Cortázar." —Randall Mann   Randall Mann is the author of Proprietary (Persea Books, 2017). He lives in San Francisco. Poetry by Mann   Proprietary (Persea Books, 2017) "The Owner of the Night" by Mark Doty "A Supermarket in California" by Allen Ginsberg "In the Dream" by Jenny Johnson Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! 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

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