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Column 787

Thinking

Intro by Ted Kooser
04.19.2020

I had to drop out of a phi­los­o­phy class in col­lege because I’d begun to think about what I was think­ing about and I was get­ting dizzy and sick. Here’s a poem by Danusha Laméris about get­ting relief from think­ing. It’s from Poet­ry of Pres­ence: An Anthol­o­gy of Mind­ful­ness Poems, pub­lished by Grayson Books of West Hart­ford, CT. The poet lives in San­ta Cruz, CA, and she has a book forth­com­ing in April 2020 from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Pitts­burgh Press enti­tled Bon­fire Opera.

Thinking

Don't you wish they would stop, all the thoughts
swirling around in your head, bees in a hive, dancers
tapping their way across the stage? I should rake the leaves
in the carport, buy Christmas lights. Was there really life on Mars?
What will I cook for dinner? I walk up the driveway,
put out the garbage bins. I should stop using plastic bags,
visit my friend whose husband just left her for the Swedish nanny.
I wish I hadn't said Patrick's painting looked "ominous."
Maybe that's why he hasn't called. Does the car need oil again?
There's a hole in the ozone the size of Texas and everything
seems to be speeding up. Come, let's stand by the window
and look out at the light on the field. Let's watch how the clouds
cover the sun and almost nothing stirs in the grass.

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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 ©2013 by Danusha Laméris, "Thinking," from The Moons of August, (Autumn House Press, 2013). Poem reprinted by permission of Danusha Laméris and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.