one morning—
it may have been in
april, perhaps november—
we found we no longer were
the people we’d started
out to be
your hand
at the window
traced circles in the frost
until the world revealed
itself to us, naked
as we’d been
the bird
tangled in blue branches
ruffled its feathers
in your throat, singing
something we only half
remembered
and the dream
of a shape we might
still take shone
in the porcelain sky, a dream
to be had
for the waking
Questions and Answers
What inspired “The waking”?
“The waking” is a love poem, but also a lament for the passage of time. It’s an acknowledgment that people in a long-term relationship change (“we found we no longer were / the people we’d started / out to be”), so the source of the poem is obvious. Everyone who’s ever been in love for more than a weekend has come to that realization.
What poetic techniques did you use in “The waking”?
As I said above, this is a lament as well as love poem. But the poem isn’t particularly sad; in fact, it’s a hopeful poem (“the dream / of a shape we might / still take shone / a dream / to be had / for the waking.”)