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Column 157

In Your Absence

Intro by Ted Kooser
04.02.2008

From your school days you may remem­ber A. E. Housman’s poem that begins, Loveli­est of trees, the cher­ry now/​Is hung with bloom along the bough.” Here’s a look at a blos­som­ing cher­ry, done 120 years lat­er, on site among the famous cher­ry trees of Wash­ing­ton, by D.C. poet Judith Harris.

In Your Absence

Not yet summer,   
but unseasonable heat   
pries open the cherry tree.   

It stands there stupefied,   
in its sham, pink frills,   
dense with early blooming.   

Then, as afternoon cools   
into more furtive winds,   
I look up to see   
a blizzard of petals   
rushing the sky.   

It is only April.   
I can’t stop my own life   
from hurrying by.   
The moon, already pacing.

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2007 by Judith Harris, whose most recent collection of poems is The Bad Secret, Louisiana State University Press, 2006. Reprinted by permission of Judith Harris. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.