I spent today trying to catch up with the online poetry course I signed up for. I like Robert Pinsky’s approach and the mail carrier brought the book I’d been waiting for this and I ripped open the packaging and started reading in the driveway.

I’m going to risk it all by typing out this poem for my anthology, which is part of the course assignment! Love this poem on oh so many levels.

To Waken an Old Lady

Old age is
a flight of small
cheeping birds
skimming
bare trees
above a snow glaze.
Gaining and failing
they are buffeted
by a dark wind——
But what?
On harsh weedstalks
the flock has rested——
the snow
is covered with broken
seed husks
and the wind tempered
with a shrill
piping of plenty.

—— William Carlos Williams

We’re using Singing School, Learning to Write (and Read) Poetry by Studying with the Masters by Robert Pinsky