Untitled Document
personalpoem #3
in england at tea
in her garden I gave
an admired author
a book I’d written with
an inscription of thanks
for her many books
I’d enjoyed
several weeks later
browsing in a
jumble sale I found
my autographed book
I bought it back
© Jacqueline Jackson 2007
What motivates us to keep moving forward through our lives, despite all the effort required to do so? Here, North Carolina poet Ruth Moose attributes human characteristics to an animal to speculate upon what that force might be.
The Crossing
The snail at the edge of the road inches forward, a trim gray finger of a fellow in pinstripe suit. He’s burdened by his house that has to follow where he goes. Every inch, he pulls together all he is, all he owns, all he was given.
The road is wide but he is called by something that knows him on the other side.
Poem copyright © 2004 by Ruth Moose, whose most recent book of poetry is The Sleepwalker (Main Street Rag, 2007). Reprinted from 75 Poems on Retirement, edited by Robin Chapman and Judith Strasser (University of Iowa Press, 2007). American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Ted Kooser served as the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2004-2006. For more information, go to www.americanlifeinpoetry.org.
in england at tea
in her garden I gave
an admired author
a book I’d written with
an inscription of thanks
for her many books
I’d enjoyed
several weeks later
browsing in a
jumble sale I found
my autographed book
I bought it back
© Jacqueline Jackson 2007
What motivates us to keep moving forward through our lives, despite all the effort required to do so? Here, North Carolina poet Ruth Moose attributes human characteristics to an animal to speculate upon what that force might be.
The Crossing
The snail at the edge of the road inches forward, a trim gray finger of a fellow in pinstripe suit. He’s burdened by his house that has to follow where he goes. Every inch, he pulls together all he is, all he owns, all he was given.
The road is wide but he is called by something that knows him on the other side.
Poem copyright © 2004 by Ruth Moose, whose most recent book of poetry is The Sleepwalker (Main Street Rag, 2007). Reprinted from 75 Poems on Retirement, edited by Robin Chapman and Judith Strasser (University of Iowa Press, 2007). American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Ted Kooser served as the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2004-2006. For more information, go to www.americanlifeinpoetry.org.
