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Poem-a-Day

The only daily poetry series publishing new work by today’s poets.

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Poem-a-day

Goodbye

—after Akhmadulina

Untitled Document

Some things you don’t come back from.
The body carries on. Of late
it even travels, basks in light.
But knock and there’s no one home.

(How did I love you? With the taste
of iron on my tongue. Try again.
How did I love you? Like a man
destroying what he tries to save.)

The head still does light labor.
But often both the hands fall slack,
and all five senses, in a flock,
go south to weather winter.

Copyright © 2025 by Geoffrey Brock. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on August 29, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.

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Geoffrey Brock

Geoffrey Brock
Photo credit: Andrew Kilgore
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About Poem-a-Day

Poem-a-Day is the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 250 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year. Randall Mann is the Guest Editor of August. Read or listen to a Q&A with Mann about his curatorial process, and learn more about the 2025 Guest Editors. Support Poem-a-Day.  

If you have any questions about Poem-a-Day, visit our Poem-a-Day FAQ.

Previous Poems

Title Author Date
Peyote Poem [excerpt] Michael McClure 07/05/2011
America Herman Melville 07/04/2011
For Once, Then, Something Robert Frost 07/03/2011
Bone & Silence Gerald Fleming 07/01/2011
Becoming Weather, 21 Chris Martin 06/30/2011
Mirrors Tada Chimako 06/29/2011
Night Songs Thomas Kinsella 06/28/2011
from The Vision of Sir Launfal James Russell Lowell 06/26/2011
Bed in Summer Robert Louis Stevenson 06/24/2011
Q & A Terence Winch 06/24/2011

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