Poem for the Weekend: Lyn Lifshin

 

Last weekend at the Tuscon Festival of Books, a nice woman handed me a small green card. It's a Pocket Poem, in celebration of National Poetry Month, which is April. There is an actual "Poem in Your Pocket Day," initiated in 2002 in New York City but adopted by the Academy of American Poets in 2008. This year it falls on April 30th and all lovers of poetry are encouraged to print one of your favorite poems onto business cards and pass them around to anyone you see. Or do it any time during April, or even before, as was done to me. And you can share your poem on twitter with #pocketpoem.

So. The poem on the card I received is by Lyn Lifshin, a prolific contemporary poet who has published over 100 books and chapbooks of poetry. More about her here.

Light From This Turning

by Lyn Lifshin

I have lost touch with
distant trees,
the wind you brought
in your hair
and lilac hills

Something different
bites into the river
and the river of lost days
floats over my tongue

Love, you are like that
distant water, pulling
and twisting
you turn me

apart from myself
like some frightening road,
something I don't want
to know

Still, let my
hair float slow through
this new color,
let my eyes absorb
all light

from this turning
that has brought us
here, has carried us
to where we are,
we are