On Blindness, Part II

For National Poetry Month, I’m sharing poems each day, one that I’ve written followed by whatever one from three sites that share a poem a day that strikes my fancy that day.

Like a poem I shared last week, this was written sometime when I lived at home with my parents, but after college. The title is a take-off from a poem by the English poet John Milton.

On Blindness, Part II

I fear losing the power of Pennsylvania Power & Light forever,
of never hearing another CD on the laser, or Rush on the radio.
Up on the highway our house tonight, electric men work in the hellish glow of flares, to repair an ancient transformer.
Their chainsaws buzz away the boughs of a nearby Norway spruce
as if they were nothing but an obstacle to progress, the Modern. Though I no neo-Luddite who wishes Berwick's reactors to blow,
I wonder what will happen when Great Niagara no longer churns
and the thousand and one rivers of Quebec give up their ghost.
But what their tribes lose, we gain: the power that turns on
the tanning lamps I help to make the powder for at Sylvania,
the bulb that brightens this desk, propels a poem beyond
where I am almost now. No more wick, the wax exhausted.

The above poem is best read in desktop and landscape on your browser of choice.

Today’s poem from one of three sites that share a poem each day is “Stony Sleep” by Dan Albergotti from The Poetry Daily.

Feel free to scroll back and read the other poems I’ve shared last week.

Today’s post is also part of The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb Nance of the blog Readerbuzz.

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6 responses to “On Blindness, Part II”

  1. I like that last line. And the title is compelling as well.

    Deb Nance at Readerbuzz Avatar
    1. Thanks, Deb. One of the few poems I have with a punchline. Sorry for the late responses here. Not going to lie, I’m kind of depressed but I have off today. Time to refuel

      Bryan G. Robinson Avatar
      1. I got plenty of fuel hearing Sandra Cisneros and Naomi Shihab Nye speak yesterday at the San Antonio Book Festival. Now I need some quiet, I think.

        Deb Nance at Readerbuzz Avatar
      2. I just picked up an ebook of poems by Naomi Shihab Nye. I haven’t read her in a while and am looking forward to it.

        Bryan G. Robinson Avatar
  2. This is so beautiful in the saddest ways. Thank you for sharing it.

    Melissa Avatar
  3. I suspect that never ending power is something that we all take for granted. I read earlier today that Hydro‑Québec for multiple reasons, has reduced its power to New England. After reading your poem, I wonder what I would most hate to lose.

    cweichel Avatar

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