Request + In a Country

[pyreneeees.livejournal.com]

Request: As I'm sure you're aware from being alive in the world this week, the 10th anniversary of 9/11 is this weekend. I'd love to read some good, solid, interesting poems about 9/11, patriotism, America, country, terrorism, etc. if you know of them. I appreciate it!

This poem isn't about 9/11, but it is awesome.

In a Country

by Larry Levis

My love and I are inventing a country, which we 

can already see taking shape, as if wheels were 

passing through yellow mud. But there is a prob-

lem: if we put a river in the country, it will thaw 

and begin flooding. If we put the river on the bor-

der, there will be trouble. If we forget about the 

river, there will be no way out. There is already a 

sky over that country, waiting for clouds or smoke. 

Birds have flown into it, too. Each evening more 

trees fill with their eyes, and what they see we can 

never erase.

One day it was snowing heavily, and again we were 

lying in bed, watching our country: we could 

make out the wide river for the first time, blue and 

moving. We seemed to be getting closer; we saw 

our wheel tracks leading into it and curving out 

of sight behind us. It looked like the land we had 

left, some smoke in the distance, but I wasn't sure. 

There were birds calling. The creaking of our 

wheels. And as we entered that country, it felt as if 

someone was touching our bare shoulders, lightly, 

for the last time.

Comments

[ashonlj.livejournal.com]

That's really lovely. Thank you for sharing.