Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Many Happy Returns

Many Happy Returns

Look at the mountain.
Bend your eyes

at the knees, then insert
your gaze at the

base. It scrapes away all
at once, eyes plus

mind makes a good forklift.
For your birthday,

I will buy you a genuine

leather mountain-

carrying case, tooled with
your name, and

the date you wanted the land
so much you took

it with you. Sometimes,
the case is heavy,

the mountain wrapping its
arms around you,

pulling you home. Others,
you won’t even

remember you have it, what
is this, you will

wonder, the strap between
thumb and finger.

6 comments

  1. There's something different I like about this - kind of like Mohammed lugging a back-pack full of hubris and hope - plus its my brothers birthday today and it seems strangely appropriate - plus that is an incredible picture that suggests what the poem has the good sense not to.

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  2. This is lovely, Hannah. The heart-breaking absurdities of our efforts to care, and of our careless forgetting. I've been reading you for about a year now; your poems are a joy and inspiration (as in, something breathed deeply in). All best to you.

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  3. The image created in those opening lines is astonishing. I like the tension in this poem, which says much by not saying it explicitly.

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  4. Audrey---HELLO! It is a delight to "meet" a dear reader. Do you have a blog? I'd love to read yours, if so. Thank you so much for your comment.

    Bill, happy birthday to your brother, and thank you!

    Thanks, as always, Maureen.

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  5. Hannah, HELLO back! My daily poetry practice is just a couple months old; no current blog, though toying with the idea. Thanks for asking, and thanks (again, again) for your poems!

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  6. I love the forklift lines, and the mountain carrying-case...brilliant stuff. I often wonder how you come up with your ideas.

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