
We have a collection of poetry by women titled The Extraordinary Tide: New Poetry by American Women [811 EXT], the book was published back in 2001, so it can no longer be considered "new" poetry, however, some of its poems can be considered timeless. Here's one by Gail Mazur that falls into that category:
Then
We weren't waiting for anything to happen.
We lived by a lake, no tides to nag us,
no relentless conventions of flow
and ebb. No frantic hermit crabs
dragging sideways in their stolen shells,
nor the drained tidal pools they fled--
Only the soft green surround of pine
and beech, the mackerel clouds, the meek
canoes. We felt enclosed. Safe.
The future looked fictional then,
though I never doubted a lucky life
could break, that rapture and grief
could be handed to me in one hard package,
delivered, and left, however I labored,
whether I rested, or ranted and zigzagged
from morning to evening. I worked
with my back to our life. Moonflowers
bloomed in the nightyard: white,
dazzling, sufficient to the night.
Lovely. Lovely. Lovely.
From here head over to Read Write Believe where Sara is hosting the Poetry Friday Round-Up.
Photo by Mark Kempe.