Newsletter sign up

Be the first to know when new American Life in Poetry columns are live.

Column 725

Weren't We Beautiful

Intro by Ted Kooser
02.10.2019

Marge Sais­er, who lives in Nebras­ka, is a fine and a very lucky poet. With the pass­ing of each year her poems have got­ten stronger and deep­er. That’s an envi­able direc­tion for a writer. This poem was pub­lished in The Bri­ar Cliff Review and it looks back wise­ly and wist­ful­ly over a rich life. Sais­er’s most recent book is The Woman in the Moon from the Back­wa­ters Press. 

Weren't We Beautiful

growing into ourselves
earnest and funny we were
angels of some kind, smiling visitors
the light we lived in was gorgeous
we looked up and into the camera
the ordinary things we did with our hands
or how we turned and walked
or looked back we lifted the child
spooned food into his mouth
the camera held it, stayed it
there we are in our lives as if
we had all time
as if we would stand in that room
and wear that shirt those glasses
as if that light
without end
would shine on us
and from us.
 

Share this column

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 ©2018 by Marjorie Saiser, "Weren't We Beautiful," from The Briar Cliff Review, (Vol. 30, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Marjorie Saiser and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.