I thought I might put up a few of my new poems written at the recent conference I attended. I’ll offer one here, and if you click through to the blog itself, look across the top of the page, click on “Poems.” There you’ll find “New poems.” Click on that, and you’ll find four new poems of mine.

Thanks for reading!

——-

Grow

Your death, when it finally arrived,
was not wall after wall of crashing waves,

but a single body blow—
air leaving me so fast

I had to sit down.
I counted my heartbeats,

tried to reel in breath
with your bamboo fly rod,

the one on which you’d snagged
your first fingerling trout.

I still have the picture pinned
to our kitchen bulletin board—

your teeth like stars behind
broad lips, shades blotting

your eyes, the spotty fish
gleaming in your palm.

I saw you let it go, saying,
Grow. As I cast for air,

I felt your steadying hand winding
the line, the leader, the caddis fly,

the same hand that stroked my thigh
before sleep. I heard the rumble

of your voice, Great gams, Toots.
And, as the laugh

lurched up my throat—
breath.

Jan Haag