from "The Prospect" by Marcella Durand

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend August 2, 2018   from The Prospect   Marcella Durand

meaning that the moon will pass over the sun and blank it out. in that moment the corona will appear to become brighter. it "appears" because it does not actually become brighter; it "appears"      to be so in that moment grasses will whisper and the stars will turn red, blue,      green and maybe even speak—what will they say? SETI will pick up a      message from beyond newly discovered possibly planetary bodies. there will be a low beeping and crunching sound that seems      to emanate from all over, but most likely from three blocks away where      men are directing a bulldozer to tear up the street and it sounds so      omnipresent, we were all talking about it this morning. it is small yet momentous, how molecules jostle one another to carry the sound of their jostling over often enormous distances.                                                                     in that moment of eclipse the phone rings, have you seen it, are you seeing it, I finally understand what we're doing, in this moment of glowing darkness I understand what I put in the water I drink the water and if together we are all getting hot we are making it hot and I must find my way to the water from the bed through all the squares of darkness and back again through treachery of light                Copyright © 2018 Marcella Durand. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "Last winter, I took a one-day course at the Drawing Center with Torkwase Dyson and the Wynter-Wells Drawing School for Environmental Justice in which we closed our eyes and drew while we imagined finding our way to water. I found myself drawing a series of squares I had to pass through in order to navigate the way from my bed to a glass of water during the night. It helped me understand how even a small domestic action could be complicated by larger environmental issues, like access to clean water, and how all together we might respond to our 'prospect' of continued inhabitance." —Marcella Durand   Marcella Durand's most recent publications include Rays of the Shadow (Tent Editions, 2017) and Le Jardin de M. (The Garden of M.) (joca seria, 2016), with French translations by Olivier Brossard. She works as a content consultant and lives in New York City. Poetry by Durand   Area (Belladonna Books, 2008) "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Glacier (after Wallace Stevens)" by Craig Santos Perez "Temple Example" by Sally Ball "Poem for a National Seashore" by Brenda Hillman August Guest Editor: Evie Shockley   Thanks to Evie Shockley, author of semiautomatic (Wesleyan University Press, 2017), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about Shockley and our guest editors for the year. 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