Poems

Find and share the perfect poems.

Praisesong

Sarah Browning

At the coffee shop you love,

white mugs heavy on the table

between us, young baristas—

spiky haired and impatient—

cannot imagine how two people

so old to them can feel so wanton,

coffee growing cold between us,

middle-aged bodies growing hot

under the other’s gaze. Even now,

apart, you send me songs so I may

listen to love from the golden throat

of a saxophone, piano keys playing

jazz across my soft belly.

How is it the tide of terror

has quit rising in me, or rises

and recedes as tides do, bringing

sea glass worked smooth

and lovely by the sheer fact

of time, bringing trash—

plastic mesh and old sneakers—

useless things now we might

bag up and remove, bringing

a lapping tongue of water up

over our toes as we hold hands

and walk along its edge—

carefully, gleefully, both.

Sarah Browning is the author of Killing Summer (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017). She is cofounder and executive director of Split This Rock and an associate fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies. She lives in Washington, DC.

Occasion

Themes

About this Poem

“New love is always terrifying, isn’t it? And perhaps especially so later in life, when we’ve had time to accumulate so much experience of heartache. ‘Praisesong’ was written very early in a romance and was inspired by a surprise spotting of the marvelous Ted Kooser poem ‘A Map of the World’ on the New York City subway, when I was there in April for less than twenty-four hours for the introduction of the first U.S. Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman at Gracie Mansion. The poem has these unforgettable lines: ‘But feeling is indelible, / and longing infinite …’ Yes … You can find poems on the subway and on the website of the MTA, which collaborates with the Poetry Society of America to bring poetry to the daily lives of New York’s commuters.”
—Sarah Browning

Poems

Page submenu block

Praisesong

Flying at Night

Newsletter Sign Up