For love,
you leapt sometimes
you walked away sometimes
that time on the phone you
couldn’t get your breath
I leapt but couldn’t get to you
I caught the brow that bid the dead
I caught the bough that hid
I’m, you know, still here,
tulip, resin, temporary—
Credit
From Shirt in Heaven, published by Copper Canyon Press. Copyright © 2015 by Jean Valentine. Reprinted with permission of The Permissions Company on behalf of Copper Canyon Press.
Author
Jean Valentine
The author of many collections of poetry, Jean Valentine has received such honors as the National Book Award, the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, and the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets.
Date Published
03/03/2016