Monday, September 22, 2008

Watering

The mailman was good to me today. Good. What Water Left Behind by Rutger Kopland arrived. A while back I wrote a short poem called "Leaving the Keweenaw" that just didn't quite get to where it needed to go. I liked it, but it just didn't quite finish the arc for almost everyone who read it. Well, Kopland's first poem in What Water Left Behind is another leaving poem, but it is just perfect. I can't wait to dive further in.

Leaving

Leaving is not the same
as creeping out of the house
pulling the door quietly to
behind your existence and not
coming back. You continue to be
someone who's expected.

Leaving you may describe as
a sort of staying on. No one
is waiting, for you are still there.
No one says goodbye,
for you are not going away.

(
Rutger Kopland, What Water Left Behind, Waxwing Book, 2005)


5 comments:

Talia Reed said...

I miss you and all of your books.

Charmi said...

I miss you, too, and I still have a couple of your books.

Next month's FGWC will be on a Thursday night, just for you.

Ann said...

The theme of this poem is exactly what I've been working on in my new script. Hmm...

Rachel said...

I miss you, too, Charmi...we have to get together sometime soon, outside the walls of the workshop, so to speak. Perhaps on the path by the stream.

Charmi said...

Ann - must be in the air.

Rachel - yes, we'll do a stream thing. I walk almost every day, so you e-mail me your schedule.