Habit
Last night when my work was done,
And my estranged hands
Were becoming mutually interested
In such forgotten things as pulses,
I looked out of a window
Into a glittering night sky.
And instantly
I began to feather-stitch a ring around the moon.
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on November 2, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets.
“Habit” was published in Curtains (John Lane Company, 1921).
Hazel Hall
Hazel Hall was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1886. She is the author of three published works: Curtains (John Lane Company, 1921), Walkers (Dodd, Mead & Company, 1923), and Cry of Time (E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1928), which was collected by her sister and published posthumously. She was much-loved in her lifelong home state of Oregon. The Oregon Book Award is named jointly for Hall and poet William Stafford. Hall died in Portland, Oregon, in 1924.