In Autumn by Mark Irwin

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend September 22, 2017   In Autumn   Mark Irwin

When within ourselves in autumn we feel the autumn I become very still, a kind of singing, and try to move like all things green, in one direction, when within ourselves the autumn moves, thickening like honey, that light we smear on faces and hands, then touch the far within one another, something like autumn, and I think when those who knew the dead, when they fall asleep, then what, then what in autumn when I always feel I'm writing in red pencil on a piece of paper growing in thickness the way a pumpkin does, traveling at fantastic speed toward orange, toward rot, when in autumn I remember that we are cold-smitten as I continue smearing red on this precipice, this ledge of paper over which I lean, trying to touch those I love, their bodies rusting as I keep writing, sketching their red hands, faces lusting for green.            Copyright © 2017 Mark Irwin. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "What's terrifying about autumn is not so much the end of things, but that there's a hidden beginning in some middle you can't yet see but feel, the way one feels the earth move when a bulldozer tears down a building while the world turns red and yellow." —Mark Irwin   Mark Irwin is the author of A Passion According to Green (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2017). He is an associate professor in the PhD program in creative writing and literature at the University of Southern California and splits his time between Los Angeles and Colorado. Poetry by Irwin   A Passion According to Green (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2017) from "You Are in Nearly Every Future" by Noah Falck "Leaves" by Lloyd Schwartz "Detail of the Woods" by Richard Siken 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 Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning.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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