A LOT OF WAYS

There are a lot of ways to love the world,
be loved by it. Start with the sounds
of it: cello suite, hum of sander.
There are a lot of ways to love you, just
as so many trees make my seeing. I, you:
the glitter of the signal breaking up.
The 10k things coming into
going out: that’s what makes the shine.

 

SECOND LETTER TO NOAH

I’d thought the floating house was what I was
waiting for to run aground into
our real life. But don’t you find this crowded,
barking x + more x because
we may need some later, rickety thing
on vast, is home—the going, not somewhere, just
going. Don’t you find the boat after
all made of water.

 

THE TWO BIRDS

One comes back: no place to land.
The other doesn’t, and we think it means
something solid, somewhere

Published in the October 9, 2015 issue: View Contents
Topics

Jean Gallagher is the author of three collections of poems. She is a professor of English at New York University.

Also by this author
© 2024 Commonweal Magazine. All rights reserved. Design by Point Five. Site by Deck Fifty.