"After Hours" by Howard Altmann

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend October 23, 2017   After Hours   Howard Altmann

We were searching for ourselves, after logic for no good reason, jumping fires to take the heat for walking, wishing the blue night not to fall into the blue sky and darken what remained. We were holding on to music, playing the solemn string the healing horn, rolling back the meadow to give innocence one more tumble, waiting for the breeze to send the screen door slamming open. We were rushing with the sea of people tiding over curb and sidewalk, twilight running out of light, a city pacing its expansion into the sky, block by block, new views burying the old, thinking not thinking about the dead. We were who we never thought we'd be, at the corner of expectation and desire, the world kind and un- kind, the rabbits scared the palace in ruins, language failing the earth in transition, the infinite sky divided the clouds dispersing premonitions. Come evening come shade, float us to your constellation, let the void draw us still; the radiologist turn off her light and go.            Copyright © 2017 Howard Altmann. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "I wrote this poem during a time when I understood that my uncle was dying, and whether that compressed the fractious into something whole, or solidified the fragility of things, it was breath to the word, hope in the foregone." —Howard Altmann   Howard Altmann's most recent poetry collection is In This House (Turtle Point Press, 2010). He lives in New York City. Poetry by Altmann   In This House (Turtle Point Press, 2010) "Loss" by H. D. "The Sadness of Clothes" by Emily Fragos "Elegy for my husband" by Toi Derricotte Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! 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