Galway Kinnell Poems

Wait, for now.
Distrust everything, if you have to.
But trust the hours. Haven't they
carried you everywhere, up to now?
...

I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
...

I eat oatmeal for breakfast.
I make it on the hot plate and put skimmed milk on it.
I eat it alone.
I am aware it is not good to eat oatmeal alone.
...

1

I move my hand over
slopes, falls, lumps of sight,
...

The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
...

For I can snore like a bullhorn
or play loud music
or sit up talking with any reasonably sober Irishman
and Fergus will only sink deeper
...

I

The stars were wild that summer evening
As on the low lake shore stood you and I
...

On the tidal mud, just before sunset,
dozens of starfishes
were creeping. It was
as though the mud were a sky
...

At intermission I find her backstage
still practicing the piece coming up next.
She calls it the "solo in high dreary."
Her bow niggles at the string like a hand
...

-- for Jane kenyon


It is a day after many days of storms.
...