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Column 762

Reel

Intro by Ted Kooser
10.27.2019

How about a light-foot­ed Irish reel before win­ter sets in, before the rest of our lives sets in? Here’s a poem by Bar­bara Crook­er, who lives in Penn­syl­va­nia. Her most recent col­lec­tion of poems is The Book of Kells from Cas­cade Books, the win­ner of the Best Poet­ry Book of 2018 as judged by Poet­ry by the Sea. 

Reel

Maybe night is about to come
calling, but right now
the sun is still high in the sky.
It's half-past October, the woods
are on fire, blue skies stretch
all the way to heaven. Of course,
we know that winter is coming, its thin
winding sheets and its hard narrow bed.
But right now, the season's fermented
to fullness, so slip into something
light, like your skeleton; while these old
bones are still working, my darling,
let's dance.

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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 ©2018 by Barbara Crooker, "Reel," from The Book of Kells, (Cascade Books, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Barbara Crooker and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.