"River to River" by Hai-Dang Phan

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend September 3, 2019   River to River   Hai-Dang Phan

After Jen Bervin / After Quan Barry River spidering across the wall, sailing through the air. River flashing with silver sequins fastened to sunbeams. River always in pieces, a torn ribbon streaming everywhere. River carving out a canyon through the years, seen from a sudden grassy overlook, an old bridge, a new shoreline, endlessly crossing and recrossing our lives. River this winter with sixteen eagles alert and searching. River unfrozen and pooling around the ankles of trees in springtime, daring us closer. River asleep inside the black night like a spent lover, dreaming of being a chandelier of rain, first velvet wet drops on bare skin. Go, go on. Conveyor belt of clouds, destroyer and preserver of towns, longest breath of the earth, tell us what floating means to you. Some trees are weeping, river. Speak of all you carry and carry off in river song and river silence. Be horse, be ferry, carry us from now to next to. River, I'm done with fading shadows. Give me daylight broken and scattered across your fluid transparent face, come meet me with the moon and the stars running and tumbling along your sides. River swinging open like a gate to the sea, time's no calendar of months, you say, but water in the aftermath of light.  Your drifting cargo tells us everything arrives from far away and long ago and ends in the body, boat of heartache and ecstasy we pilot, in quest of passage also. River we call Mississippi or Mekong, sing us forth to nowhere but here, with your perfect memory be our flood.            Copyright © 2019 Hai-Dang Phan. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on September 3, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. About This Poem   "This poem emerged from the serendipitous confluence of numerous sites and sightings, including Jen Bervin's luminous exhibition 'River' at the Des Moines Art Center, a sentence by Toni Morrison ('All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was'), a poem by Quan Barry ('Black cricket in the doorway, on the ceiling, in'), weekly drives across the Mississippi, almost daily walks down to the Iowa River, and numerous rivers I've known growing up in the Midwest. Invoking and apostrophizing these rivers one and many, the poem became a deluge. Writing 'River to River' I was reminded of how poetry exceeds, overflows, and reroutes the ordinary course of language, evolving new forms, new ways in and through the world. At the same time it feels like an ancient way home."  —Hai-Dang Phan   Hai-Dang Phan is the author of Reenactments: Poems and Translations (Sarabande Books, 2019). He teaches at Grinnell College and lives in Iowa City, Iowa. Poetry by Phan   Reenactments: Poems and Translations (Sarabande Books, 2019) "Eve Remembering" by Toni Morrison "White Sands" by Arthur Sze "Things We Carry on the Sea" by Wang Ping September Guest Editor: Eduardo C. Corral   Thanks to Eduardo C. Corral, author of Guillotine (Graywolf Press, 2020), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A with Corral about his curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year. Your Support Makes Poem-a-Day Possible   Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. This free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on the weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. 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