When my airways are inflamed                I write myself a letter

I’m pleased to know                         even the rocks aren’t immortal

I take a step back                 I open my pockets

I am completely rational               like a 19th century ghost

I make a potato stamp                      to be remembered by

If the children laugh                          I have a dream

Mention openness and trust                      to a coyote

You see the sunrise                         behind a moose

I don’t doubt the water                  has its own ideas

It is a model of attachment          and resurrection

Nobody wants to be rain               falling in November

 

poetrybio020110.jpgMatthew Rohrer is the author of Hummock in the Malookas: Poems (National Poetry Series Books), Satellite, A Green Light, Rise Up, and A Plate of Chicken. With Joshua Beckman he wrote Nice Hat. Thanks. and recorded the audio CD Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. With Joshua Beckman and Anthony McCann he wrote the secret book Gentle Reader! It is not for sale. Octopus Books published his action/adventure chapbook-length poem They All Seemed Asleep in 2008.

 

Writer’s Recommendations:

Novels in Three Lines by Felix Feneon.

The Collected Poems of Philip Whalen.

What the Right Hand Knows by Tom Healy.

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