Waking A Stranger

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.

Waking A Stranger 

Touching something like that is like waking a stranger
says the archaeologist this morning on the radio
when asked what it's like excavating
Native American remains in a nearby county.
Driving to work, I think I know what she means:
it's like catching the fleeting glance in the rearview
of the person behind you that you don't know,
but that you think you do for a moment.
Or like when a painter is applying the brush
to the canvas and something begins to take shape,
but he doesn't know what yet. Or like the circles
a pen makes when a writer is doodling, a knot
of lines overlapping lines that form
a hurricane whose eye he cannot see out of.

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

Today’s poem from one of three sites that share a poem each day is “The Stranger in Her Feminine Sign” by Dunya Mikhail on The Poetry Foundation website.

Today’s post is also part of The Sunday Salon hosted by Deb Nance of the blog Readerbuzz. If visiting from The Sunday Salon or otherwise, please scroll back on the blog for more poetry each day this month.

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8 responses to “Waking A Stranger”

  1. This may be my favorite poem of yours. What beautiful images this forms in my mind as they intertwine and loop together like the doodles of your poem.

    I’ve been doing a little bit with the Stafford Challenge this year and NaPoWriMo this month. I would like to do more.

    Deb Nance at Readerbuzz Avatar
    1. I like this poem too…you should share some of yours, unless I missed it.

      Bryan G. Robinson Avatar
      1. I’m not as brave as you are!

        Deb Nance at Readerbuzz Avatar
  2. I love this one. Are you going to share the one about Grandpa Robinson? That one is one of my favorites overall.

    Lisa R. Howeler Avatar
    1. Which one? I shared one already. If you mean the one about us fishing, I’m not sure I have a copy of that one. I know that I should, but I don’t. 🤦

      Bryan G. Robinson Avatar
      1. Mom and Dad still have it framed at the house. The one you gave Grandma. I can take a photo and send it Wednesday…I’ll be over there then.

        Lisa R. Howeler Avatar
      2. As we like to say, “sounds like a plan.”🙂

        Bryan G. Robinson Avatar
  3. Lovely poem!

    Marg Avatar

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