Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IT JUST SO HAPPENS by JAMES GALVIN

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: YOU FINGERED THE WHITE TOP
Last Line: That knocks the wind out of the ground
Subject(s): ANXIETY; CONVERSATION; GRIEF; SOLITUDE; SORROW; SADNESS; LONELINESS;
You fingered the white top
Button of your white blouse.

I just tried to act natural.
A tree fell in the forest

Nearby without making a sound.
Like most of what we said

It made the silence deeper.
Our laughter made us sadder.

You said the only cure
For anxiety was fear.

Now solitude undoes loneliness
Like a ribbon from your hair,

And the sound at last arrives
That knocks the wind out of the ground.


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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