That light in late afternoon this time of year—
that brassy note in the trees before the sun
disappears—
It's hard to believe how much has changed
or how little: history of our miseries in this world.
That brassy note in the trees before the sun disappears:
but what did they see of the light before it fell?
How little your worth, history of your miseries in this world.
First it mellows your heart then floods it with dread.
O what did they see of the light before they fell:
the child in the park, the woman asleep in her bed?
Their mellow hearts notwithstanding, flooded with dread.
The ones who call out, gasping for breath in the street
like the child in the park, the woman asleep in her bed—
It's hard to believe that nothing has changed.
What new body calls out, gasping for breath in the street?
The light a knife in late afternoon, this time of year.
Poet Luisa A. Igloria (Poetry Foundation web page, author webpage ) was recently appointed Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia (2020-2022). She is Co-Winner of the 2019 Crab Orchard Open Competition in Poetry for Maps for Migrants and Ghosts (Southern Illinois University Press, September 2020). She is the winner of the 2015 Resurgence Prize (UK), the world’s first major award for ecopoetry, selected by former UK poet laureate Sir Andrew Motion, Alice Oswald, and Jo Shapcott. She is the author of What is Left of Wings, I Ask (2018 Center for the Book Arts Letterpress Chapbook Prize, selected by former US Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey); Bright as Mirrors Left in the Grass (Kudzu House Press eChapbook selection for Spring 2015), Ode to the Heart Smaller than a Pencil Eraser (Utah State University Press, 2014 May Swenson Prize), Night Willow (Phoenicia Publishing, 2014), The Saints of Streets (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2013), Juan Luna’s Revolver (2009 Ernest Sandeen Prize, University of Notre Dame Press), and nine other books. She is a member of the core faculty of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Old Dominion University which she directed from 2009-2015; she also teaches classes at The Muse Writers’ Center in Norfolk. In 2018, she was the inaugural Glasgow Distinguished Writer in Residence at Washington and Lee University. When she isn’t writing, reading, or teaching, she cooks with her family, knits, hand-binds books, and listens to tango music.
Love this! I will use it for a model if I need to write a pantoum. Besides, it’s just so haunting…