Rocking Chair, and: Whose Honors Include . . .
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Rocking Chair, and: Whose Honors Include . . .
ROCKING CHAIR
The rocking chair on the dock rocks
on its own, unoccupied, back
and forth on the bleached boards
between the lake's wave-streaked blue
and the sky afloat with fat white clouds,
its fading layers of slate-blue paint
cracked and flaking like ancient lichen,
worn in places to the weathered bone . . . [End Page 222]
back and forth of its own accord,
or propelled by an invisible force
that seems to be more than just the wind,
as if someone were sitting there, back
from the dead for an after- noon—
though whoever it is remains unseen
and stays only until the wind itself dies. [End Page 223]
WHOSE HONORS INCLUDE . . .
I'm the writer-in-residenceof my own residence,the poet laureateof my own back yard,a dual position that can berenewed indefinitely.I hold the endowed chairof the wingback chairI inherited from my grandmother.I've been honoredwith the fellowshipof the birds around the feeder,and each fall I receivea grant from the treesof more leavesthan I could ever need.For as long as I can rememberI've been the executive directorof my own existence,which will remain truefor as long as I can remember.I was presented with a certificateof distinguished achievementfrom the Department of the Interior,but then I woke up.And as I shuffled down the hallon my way to the bathroomthe window's shadow(cast by a lightthe neighbors left on)hung on the walllike an honorary degreeinscribed not in Latinbut the shadows of leaves. [End Page 224]
JEFFREY HARRISON's sixth book of poetry will be published by Four Way Books in fall 2020. His previous book, Into Daylight, won the Dorset Prize from Tupelo Press, and Incomplete Knowledge (Four Way, 2006) was runner-up for the Poets' Prize. His poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, the Pushcart Prize anthology, and many other publications.
