from "Soft Targets" by Deborah Landau

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend October 25, 2017   from "Soft Targets"   Deborah Landau

A breath leaves the body, and wishes it could return maybe, the news to the left and right rich with failure, terror, dither, the bloated moon in constant charge of us like vapor—   and this did frame our constituency, even in our cozy homes even in a painless state on the downriver, oh oblivion— sipping champagne as another night brings forth its big dancing plan           its damage.   I had a thought but it turned autumn, turned cold. I had a body, unwearied, vital, despite the funeral in everything— ample with bodies, covered in graves and gardens, potholes and water,   an ardent river we walked together, a wine and rising breeze. Much trouble at hand, yet the lilies still. That summer we sat with our backs to the street, letting time pass—   lying all afternoon in the grass as if green and insect were the world. I am, I am, and you are, you are, we wrote, until the paper seemed a           tree again and we walked beneath it greener and unsullied afresh.   Massive powers that be, what will be? We smoke our pipes to forget you & mildly now we bide our time   the violence and real cities under siege, but also filled this morning with coffee drinkers, office workers, taxi drivers, boys on bikes.   Golden we were in the moment of conception, and alive, as if we always would be.            Copyright © 2017 Deborah Landau. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "This poem is excerpted from a long lyric sequence, 'Soft Targets,' which was written after the recent terror attacks in Paris. The random cruelty of that violence—and the body's terrible vulnerability in the city—haunted and continues to haunt me." —Deborah Landau   Deborah Landau is the author of three books of poetry, most recently The Uses of the Body (Copper Canyon Press, 2015). She directs the creative writing program at New York University. Poetry by Landau   The Uses of the Body (Copper Canyon Press, 2015) "What the Living Do" by Marie Howe "The Language of the Birds" by Richard Siken "Aubade: Some Peaches, After Storm" by Carl Phillips 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 Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning.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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