Today’s poem is “And Now” by Martin Steingesser. Martin is author of three books of poems, Yellow Horses, Brothers of Morning, and The Thinking Heart: the Life & Loves of Etty Hillesum.
He writes, “Sometimes the stars line up for you, as they did in the writing of this poem, 'And Now,' while house-sitting for a friend in a cottage overlooking Camden harbor, short days, long nights, snuggled in and in love, the added companionship of two amenable cats, modeling how to stretch and yawn, and the yearning to find words for it all.”
And Now
by Martin Steingesser
Already afternoon, already this day backing away,
rolling out of reach, all the morning’s busyness—email,
phone messages, the run along Bayview, sunlight
across the road, the smell of wet earth, snow,
manure and pine along the cow pasture; earlier, too,
those whispers, sparrows at first light,
the brusque crow of love, all the heart's kindling.
The cats find us, the calico stretching out on top of the sofa,
the ginger-and-white asleep on the rocker. You, on a chair
across from me, reading Anam Cara and making notes,
don't look up, say nothing I can use to turn this
into a poem. 4:20, already the light dark as blue coal.
Poem copyright ©2015 Martin Steingesser. Reprinted from Yellow Horses, Deerbrook Editions, 2015, by permission of Martin Steingesser.