Sea and Rain: Lake Michigan by Keith Taylor

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 19, 2014   Sea and Rain: Lake Michigan   Keith Taylor

after James McNeill Whistler, 1865 There is a dance at water’s edge, a movement between the lake, its sand and the horizon where lake becomes cloud. Between those lines our world’s a thin wash of muted tones, beige and gray with a hint of white, almost abstract, until the dancer steps out into the pool. She makes the whole thing real.              Copyright @ 2014 by Keith Taylor. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “The Whistler painting Sea and Rain is in the University of Michigan’s art museum. There is a small unfinished person in the left foreground who gives the scene context. Otherwise it is a color abstraction. I have seen a dancer on the shores of Lake Michigan who also could focus attention.” —Keith Taylor   Keith Taylor teaches part-time in the writing program at the University of Michigan. His most recent book of poems is If the World Becomes So Bright (Wayne State University Press, 2009). Most Recent Book by Taylor   If the World Becomes So Bright  (Wayne State University Press, 2009) “Joseph Cornell, with Box” by Michael Dumanis “The Picture of Little T. C. in a Prospect of Flowers” by Andrew Marvell “The Painting” by John Balaban Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. 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