Peter Streckfus (born 1969, in San Antonio, Texas) is an American poet. His first book, The Cuckoo, won the 2003 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition, chosen by Louise Glück. His second book, Errings, won Fordham University Press's 2013 POL Editor's Prize. His honors include the 2013-14 Brodsky Rome Prize Fellowship in Literature at the American Academy in Rome. He is a professor of English at George Mason University.
Where am I.
A window, blinds half opened, the maple and beautybush and smilax catching
the lamplight, nodding as if a silent chorus. Beyond, the flood of the nothing
...
There is fire in the beginning—without it, we thought, we could not see one another.
After only months, a scorched foothill, but covered in evergreen heather.
...
Like a silvery fish pulled out of the dark water.
And so the opportunity for confusion
or clarity is intensified seven times.
...
Last night, my father came to my dreaming
self in the form of a vampire.
A vampire's position is liminal—
...
Come to the surface of the screen with your piscine light
and oxygen holes and press for moments
...