"Strictly Speaking" by David Rivard

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend October 6, 2017   Strictly Speaking   David Rivard

There is the question of bearing witness, of being yourself seen by yourself, & seen clearly, cleanly, without weapon or bible in hand; as this was the wish, the sturdy & not-so-secret wish of those who named us—   our parents wanted us to be known to ourselves without confusion: without judgment, sans suffering. Never force it, they said, always find it.   OK, strictly speaking, that's not entirely true. My particular, sole, insistent, moody mother & father probably never thought much about it at all. Those two anxious citizens, they were never exemplars of patience. The weightlessness of detachment & acceptance as I think of it now would have frightened them— for good reason.   If you could see these words I'm speaking to you tonight printed on a page as typeface & magnified x 500 you would feel just how ragged & coarse they really are, heavy.   Well, playing the part of a butterfly must be tiring, right? I'm happier being the old ox, right?   On some plane of existence these two scraps are all my news: where the mess is that's where my heart is.            Copyright © 2017 David Rivard. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "Every once in a while I write a poem that tells me where and how I'm going to be living for a time in my life. This one—drafted first two years ago—was certainly on message: an invitation to a certain vulnerability. The last two lines seem like an offer of permission." —David Rivard   David Rivard is the author of Standoff (Graywolf Press, 2016). He teaches in the MFA program in writing at the University of New Hampshire and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Poetry by Rivard   Standoff (Graywolf Press, 2016) "Dear Millennium, Inadequate Witness" by Karen An-hwei Lee "Stuff I probably did and didn't" by Stephanie Gray "The Driver of the Car Is Unconscious" by Timothy Donnelly 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 Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning.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