Poem-A-Day: Friend, by Jean Valentine

November 27, 2013 Friend, by Jean Valentine You came in a dream, yesterday  --The first day we met  you showed me your dark workroom  off the kitchen, your books, your notebooks.    Reading our last, knowing-last letters  --the years of our friendship  reading our poems to each other,  I would start breathing again.    Yesterday, in the afternoon,  more than a year since you died,  some words came into the air.  I looked away a second,  and they were gone,  six lines, just passing through.     for Adrienne Rich   Copyright © 2013 by Jean Valentine. Used with permission of the author.   About This Poem "This is a poem that I wrote last May, more than a year after Adrienne Rich's death, and have only just finished (if it is finished). Adrienne was my first woman poet friend; we met because when my first book was published, in 1965, she read it and wrote me a letter. That was an act of generosity that was characteristic of her forever." --Jean Valentine Most Recent Book by Valentine Break the Glass (Copper Canyon Press, 2010)            Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive.   Jean Valentine is the author of numerous books of poems, including Break the Glass (Copper Canyon Press, 2010). She's the recipient of the 2009 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets. Valentine lives in New York.  Related Poems The World as Seen Through a Glass of Ice Water by Dobby Gibson Suddenly by Sharon Olds By ways remote and distant waters sped (101) by Gaius Valerius Catullus __________________________ Rae Armantrout is the judge for the 2014 Walt Whitman first book award. Submit your manuscript online. Deadline: December 1.     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.

Forward this email This email was sent to prentice654.allsms@blogger.com by poetnews@poets.org |   Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Academy of American Poets | 75 Maiden Lane | Suite 901 | New York | NY | 10038