David Young Poet

The House Was Quiet on a Winter Afternoon

Someone was reading in the back,
two travelers had gone somewhere,
maybe to Chicago,

a boy was out walking, muffled up,
alert on the frozen creek,
a sauce was simmering on the stove.

Birds outside at the feeder
threw themselves softly
from branch to branch.

Suddenly I did not want my life
to be any different.
I was where I needed to be.

The birds swirled in the dusk.
The boy came back from the creek.
The dead were holding us up

the way the ice held him,
helping us breathe the way
air helps snowflakes swirl and fall.

And the sadness felt just right,
like a still and moving wave
on which the sun shone brilliantly.

........................from At the White Window (2000)

Previous Poems of the Month on one page.

Poem from January, 2012
Piano Practice
from Rainer Mria Rilke

Poem from December, 2011
from Six Ghosts

Poem from November, 2011
from Leopardi: L'Infinito

Poem from October, 2011
from Four by Bashio

Poem from September, 2011
from My Little 9-11 Poem

Poem from August, 2011
from Stevens Ghazal

Poem from July, 2011
from Thunder in the Marsh

Poem from June, 2011
from June 17, 2003

Poem from May, 2011
from Sonnels to Orpheus (II, 25)

Poem from April, 2011
More Basho Translations

Poem from March, 2011
Mirror Ghazal

Poem from February, 2011
Pelee Island, Lake Erie

Poem from January, 2011
Five Winter Haiku by Basho

Poem from December, 2010
In the Afternoon

Poem from November, 2010
Fall Day

Poem from October, 2010
Kitchen Rukus

Poem from September, 2010
Visiting the Fengxian Monastery

Poem from August, 2010
David Young Meets the Ghost of Wallace Stevens
on an August Night in His Back Yard

Poem from July, 2010
from A Painting of a Falcon

Poem from June, 2010
from Thoughts of Chairman Mao

Poem from May, 2010
from Henry Vaughan

Poem from April, 2010
from The Light Show

Poem from March, 2010
from Whichever Stone You Pick Up

Poem from February, 2010
from 'Water Diary'

Poem from January, 2010
January 3, 2003

Poem from December, 2009
Basho

Poem from November, 2009
Oh Salmon-Colored Edsel, Run Us Down

Poem from October, 2009
Hearing You Read

Poem from September, 2009
A Country Postcard

Poem from August, 2009
Mother

Poem from July, 2009
The Day Nabokov Died

Poem from June, 2009
June 17, 2003

Poem from May, 2009
Kohoutek

Poem from April, 2009
Root Vegetable Ghazal

Poem from March, 2009
Poem for Wrists

Poem from February, 2009
Blake's 'Dante and Virgil Penetrating the Forest' (1824)

Poem from January, 2009
Skeleton

Poem from December, 2008
December Fourth, 1974

Poem from November, 2008
A Ghost, to One Alive

Poem from October, 2008
Autumn Ghazal

Poem from September, 2008
The Portable Earth-Lamp

Poem from August, 2008
The Picture Says

Poem from July, 2008
July Morning Vision

Poem from June, 2008
Four About Death

Poem from May, 2008
Bonuses

Poem from April, 2008
The Self: A Sonnet Sequence

Poem from March, 2008
A Lowercase Alphabet

Poem from February, 2008
Chopping Garlic

Poem from January, 2008
A Calendar: The Beautiful Names of the Months

Poem from December, 2007
The Poem of the Cold

Poem from November, 2007
At the Back of the Year in a High Wind

Poem from October, 2007
October's Stem and Head-Piece

Poem from September, 2007
Poem About Hopping

Poem from August, 2007
Putting My Father's Ashes in the Cemetary at Springville Iowa

Poem from July, 2007
Vermont Summer: Three Snapshots, One Letter

Poem from June, 2007
from "Four Songs on a Bone Flute"

Poem from May, 2007
Waking Home on an Early Spring Evening

Poem from April, 2007
Easter Ghazal

Poem from March, 2007
from "Water Diary" (Boxcars, 1973)

Poem from February, 2007
Section 10 of "Dancing in the Dark,"
from "Poem in Three Parts," Earthshine

Poem from January, 2007
Two New Year's Poems by DU FU

Poem from December, 2006
Christmas: Ohio and Capolongo

Poem from November, 2006
Three Time-Trips

Poem from October, 2006
October Couplets

Poem from September, 2006
Mesa Verde

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Contact: david.young@oberlin.edu or call 440-775-8576