Tom Montag
Five from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems
ANOTHER DAY
Another day,
another crow,
or the same one,
like the same sun
above these hills.
The same chill, too,
but chiller. The same
rush towards darkness.
THE RED GRASSES SAY
The red grasses say
you could want this,
but you would have to
love it. It will
give back everything
you offer, though
you might not know,
seeing as you do
only with your eyes.
The red grasses say
see like a cricket.
HOW MUCH
How much
mystery
for this much
heart? Only
the grasses
know, only
the coyotes.
DO NOT THINK TOO MUCH
Do not think too much
but walk. It waits for you.
You are ready. All these
years you have prepared
yourself to be — not
perfect — but present.
COTTONWOOD LEAVES
Cottonwood
leaves fall like
flecks of sun.
If you wait,
the whole world
comes to you.
Patience is
the lesson
of the Keya
Paha. Even
the sky knows.
Tom Montag is recently the author of In This Place: Selected Poems 1982-2013; This Wrecked World; The Miles No One Wants; and Imagination's Place: The Old Poet Poems. His Love Poems is forthcoming from Architrave Press. He has been a featured poet at Atticus Review, Contemporary American Voices, Houseboat, and Basil O'Flaherty Review. Montag has been writing and publishing poetry and creative nonfiction for more than fifty years in a wide variety of little magazines. He was a founding contributing editor for The Pushcart Prize and he blogs at The Middlewesterner. With David Graham he is currently co-editing an anthology of poetry about small town America.
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Five from The Wishin' Jupiter Poems
ANOTHER DAY
Another day,
another crow,
or the same one,
like the same sun
above these hills.
The same chill, too,
but chiller. The same
rush towards darkness.
THE RED GRASSES SAY
The red grasses say
you could want this,
but you would have to
love it. It will
give back everything
you offer, though
you might not know,
seeing as you do
only with your eyes.
The red grasses say
see like a cricket.
HOW MUCH
How much
mystery
for this much
heart? Only
the grasses
know, only
the coyotes.
DO NOT THINK TOO MUCH
Do not think too much
but walk. It waits for you.
You are ready. All these
years you have prepared
yourself to be — not
perfect — but present.
COTTONWOOD LEAVES
Cottonwood
leaves fall like
flecks of sun.
If you wait,
the whole world
comes to you.
Patience is
the lesson
of the Keya
Paha. Even
the sky knows.
Tom Montag is recently the author of In This Place: Selected Poems 1982-2013; This Wrecked World; The Miles No One Wants; and Imagination's Place: The Old Poet Poems. His Love Poems is forthcoming from Architrave Press. He has been a featured poet at Atticus Review, Contemporary American Voices, Houseboat, and Basil O'Flaherty Review. Montag has been writing and publishing poetry and creative nonfiction for more than fifty years in a wide variety of little magazines. He was a founding contributing editor for The Pushcart Prize and he blogs at The Middlewesterner. With David Graham he is currently co-editing an anthology of poetry about small town America.