April 11: The Darker Sooner
Martha
The Darker Sooner
Catherine Wing
Then came the darker sooner,
came the later lower.
We were no longer a sweeter-here
happily-ever-after. We were after ever.
We were farther and further.
More was the word we used for harder.
Lost was our standard-bearer.
Our gods were fallen faster,
and fallen larger.
The day was duller, duller
was disaster. Our charge was error.
Instead of leader we had louder,
instead of lover, never. And over this river
broke the winter’s black weather.
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Also by Catherine Wing:
+ A Small Psalm
Time warp to a poem from:
2025: Conversation with Mary, Gabrielle Bates
2024: The Coffin Maker Speaks, Lisa Suhair Majaj
2023: Running Orders, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
2022: April, Alex Dimitrov
2021: Dust, Dorianne Laux
2020: VI. Wisdom: The Voice of God, Mary Karr
2019: What I Didn’t Know Before, Ada Limón
2018: History, Jennifer Michael Hecht
2017: from Correspondences, Anne Michaels
2016: Mesilla, Carrie Fountain
2015: Dolores Park, Keetje Kuipers
2014: Finally April and the Birds Are Falling Out of the Air with Joy, Anne Carson
2013: The Flames, Kate Llewellyn
2012: To See My Mother, Sharon Olds
2011: Across a Great Wilderness without You, Keetje Kuipers
2010: Poem About Morning, William Meredith
2009: Death, The Last Visit, Marie Howe
2008: Animals, Frank O’Hara
2007: Johnny Cash in the Afterlife, Bronwen Densmore
2006: Anne Hathaway, Carol Ann Duffy
2005: Sleep Positions, Lola Haskins