"Aubade" by Ishion Hutchinson

Flashing silk phantoms/ from the promontory,

Support Poem-a-Day February 10, 2020   Aubade Ishion Hutchinson                                  for Edward Baugh     Flashing silk phantoms from the promontory,   when seen at dark   rushing to their beds, those lights corroding over Navy Island, never grow old.   In two enamel basins, fill water to wash overripe stars, eaten without second guess, worm and all, from veranda chairs, where no guilt brims over, whatsoever.  As frost, unknown, intimate breath bursts hot its kind silence. Get up, go greet Errol Flynn's ghost at the empty footbridge, leaning on the breeze. Maroons hum out of hills, restless as unappeased trees, ringing, "Even days coming are already gone too soon," then return before the river's lustre hides their voices and immeasurable slow leaves bring down our morning. Copyright © 2020 by Ishion Hutchinson. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on February 10, 2020, by the Academy of American Poets. "The good poem revitalizes memory. Edward Baugh's 'A Rain-washed Town By the Sea,' is one such poem. It ends: 'These memories define me. I keep them / against that morning when my eyes / no longer turn to greet the sun.' Bracing words my own panoramic memory, in miniature, sings back to and to him, and to the town—Port Antonio—in which we were born." —Ishion Hutchinson Ishion Hutchinson is the author of House of Lords and Commons (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016), winner of the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award. He teaches in the graduate writing program at Cornell University and lives in Ithaca, New York.   House of Lords and Commons (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016) "Ode, Aubade" by Greg Wrenn  read more "Aubade" by Devin Johnston read more Thanks to Roger Reeves, author of King Me (Copper Canyon Press, 2013), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read an extended Q&A about Reeves' curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year. Make a one-time contribution to help us publish Poem-a-Day.   Make your support go further by enrolling in monthly giving and joining the Mug Club! Copyright © 2020 The Academy of American Poets, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: The Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane St #901 New York, NY 10038 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.