Succession by Jeffrey Brown

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend January 29, 2015   Succession   Jeffrey Brown

One morning state police escort us to your grave the next my flight is canceled.   Maintenance issues breaking out all over. You would speak of a “grand theory,” something   tying all this together, but you had none yourself, none that reached me then or now   as I drive your car slowly into the tranquil streets of my youth. Here is where   I learned to ride a bike, on this high hill that is no hill at all. And still I fell.   And now you descend and still I fall. And here is where I learned to doubt, in the chapel   where we donned black skullcaps that meant nothing, I tell you. If god speaks it is elsewhere.   And here are my own children rooted and uncertain watching me speak to you.   You watched the news every night worried if I did not make “air”— traveling, sick, useless, lost.   Now that you are gone— traffic parted by the state police— can I, too, disappear?            Copyright © 2015 by Jeffrey Brown. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “On the day of my father’s funeral I was a child, I was father to my children, I was somehow father to my father. And the traffic magically parted. ‘Succession’ tries to capture the range of emotions and experiences.” —Jeffrey Brown   Jeffrey Brown is author of The News (Copper Canyon Press, 2015). He is a senior correspondent for the PBS NewsHour, public television’s nightly newscast. Most Recent Book by Brown   The News (Copper Canyon Press, 2015) "My Mother Sent Me" by Michael Meyerhofer "How to Be a Lawyer" by Jordan Davis "My Father" by Scott Hightower Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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