the poem is a dream telling you its time
is a field
as long as the butterflies say
it is a field
with their flight
it takes a long time
to see
like light or sound or language
to arrive
and keep
arriving
we have more
than six sense dialect
and i
am still
adjusting to time
the distance and its permanence
i have found my shortcuts
and landmarks
to place
where i first took form
in the field
Copyright © 2022 by Marwa Helal. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on October 3, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.
“This poem uses syntax to explore simultaneous fields of thought and existence. It also reflects on how poems are a tool of both transformation and travel through time and space. The practice of poem-making results in its own and new form(s), and, if successful, includes the changing and transport of both the writer and reader.”
—Marwa Helal
Marwa Helal
