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Column 172

Marry Me

Intro by Ted Kooser
07.16.2008

I don’t often talk about poet­ic forms in this col­umn, think­ing that most of my read­ers aren’t inter­est­ed in how the clock works and would rather be giv­en the time. But the fol­low­ing poem by Veron­i­ca Pat­ter­son of Col­orado has a sub­ti­tle refer­ring to a form, the sen­ryu, and I thought it might be help­ful to men­tion that the sen­ryu is a Japan­ese form sim­i­lar to haiku but deal­ing with peo­ple rather than nature. There; enough said. Now you can for­get the form and enjoy the poem, which is a beau­ti­ful sketch of a marriage. 

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Marry Me

By Veronica Patterson

when I come late to bed   
I move your leg flung over my side—   
that warm gate   

nights you’re not here   
I inch toward the middle   
of this boat, balancing   

when I turn over in sleep   
you turn, I turn, you turn,   
I turn, you   

some nights you tug the edge   
of my pillow under your cheek,   
look in my dream   

pulling the white sheet   
over your bare shoulder   
I marry you again

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Disclaimer

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 © 2000 by Veronica Patterson, whose most recent book of poetry is This Is the Strange Part, Pudding House Publications, 2002. Poem reprinted from Swan, What Shores?, New York University Press, 2000, by permission of Veronica Patterson and New York University Press. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.

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Piano

Column 171

Planting the Sand Cherry

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