Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, REAL WONDER, by JAMES GALVIN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

REAL WONDER, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: In the stunned little interval
Last Line: Preceding real wonder .
Subject(s): Fences; Houses; Spring; Winter


In the stunned little interval
Between winter and spring,
Like the held gasp of surprise
Preceding real wonder,
I'm a flashlight in daylight.

Green stirs low down and shows
Through dead blond shocks of grass,
And gray aspen flowers dangle
Above old snowbanks:
I go around like a feral saint.

The timber hoards
Its meager crust of snow.
I used to walk over the hill
To visit my neighbor
About now.

Just because he was still alive
After another winter.
We'd look out the window
At the groggy meadow,
Not much to say by the end.

This year my neighbor is dead
So I walk the hill anyway.
There's his dead house.
There's his dead fence.
The timber hoards

Its meager crust of snow.
I'm a gunnysack of gravel.
I'm sudden as a gust of light.
This is just
The stunned little interval

After another winter,
The held gasp of surprise
Preceding real wonder.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org




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