Choosing a Favorite Poem...

....to read tomorrow at the alma mater is darn near impossible. I did settle on one, though--the following one by Sharon Olds:



The Winter After Your Death

The long bands of mellow light
across the snow
narrow slowly.
The sun closes her gold fan
and nothing is left but black and white--
the quick steam of my breath, the dead
accurate shapes of the weeds, still, as if
pressed in an album.
Deep in my body, my green heart
turns, and thinks of you. Deep in the
pond, under the thick trap
door of ice, the water moves,
the carp hangs like a sun, its scarlet
heart visible in its side.



Mr. Strega and I are making a date of going to the alma mater tomorrow, too, which should be nice.

I do hope I get back to writing more poetry after the book is all done (this weekend, I hope, by the way, despite the mountain of grading I've got to do). I am glad I am close--I didn't want to keep saying, "I'm finishing my book" for the next twenty years!