08/25/2021
“Questions Before Dark” is one of my go-to poems. I read it in the evening as a way of reviewing how I’ve lived my day—happy with some of my answers, not so much with others. In the morning, I read it again to remind myself of the inner work I need to be doing today.
Is there a question in this poem that speaks to you? I think my work at the moment is to allow “the bewilderment that invites the possible” to do its work on me.
There are a thousand things to be bewildered about right now, if I don’t let them do me in. I want to engage with a few of them to point me toward new possibilities—personal and political—that promise something better.
I’m not sure what I’d do without the wide range of poets who keep generating Holy Writ—the kind that’s full of honest, open questions rather than mandatory answers, as if one size would fit all!
Jeanne Lohmann died in 2016 at age 93, and wrote fine poetry to the end of her life. She always invites us to consider what is truly important in the limited time we have on earth. You’ll find all of her books at http://tinyurl.com/br75wnk.
[All 10 of my books are at https://tinyurl.com/3ys2285c OR https://tinyurl.com/htjx6ju.]
