Vox Populi
A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 6,000,000 visitors since 2014 and over 9,000 archived posts.
Bruce Lowry: Just Long Enough
My desire is only this—to die someplace the earth made beautiful all on its own, the way a first-grader makes the morning glory out of construction paper and Elmer’s glue, or the way the sun sets on Monument Valley. I want to find my peace with not too many people around, a place no one else has found. I want to be there just long enough to recognize false light, give it a name, something out of Virgil, maybe, or Neruda. Then set myself aside like an old saddlebag unafraid of the ground.
Copyright 2020 Bruce Lowry. First published in Carve.
Bruce Lowry, a native Southerner, is also a journalist. He received an MFA in Poetry from Drew University. His fiction and poetry have appeared widely, most recently in Valley Voices, JuxtaProse and december. He resides in Union County, New Jersey. His collection Salvage is available from Ragged Sky Press.
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Lovely.
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Ah what a good poem! I kept thinking “me too, me too” and I didn’t know I often feel like an old saddlebag, but now that you mention it, yep…
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Peace lingers from the morning glory to the sunset over Monument Valley. Nice to read Bruce and thanks for mentioning Valley Voices.
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Thanks, John!
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Shades of Alexander Pope: “Happy the Man whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound…”
Life has been made simple today by Hurricane Ian. Coffee on a camp stove—there is sometimes deep if infrequent pleasure in privation (esp. in unlasting circumstances).
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Sounds like you are having to rough it, Sean. How is the ranch holding up in the wake of the hurricane?
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We felt the storm was only a glancing blow, but our yard! OMG!
Ransacked. That was one mean storm. We wont talk about Ft Myers or Naples. Lovely places… see Campbell’s poem about the Edison House and Ford Estate in Florida poems (I believe) great worries about those beautiful places!
We’re fine.
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I’m so glad you’re OK. But what a storm it seems to have been. And in the night, which makes it even scarier, huh?! I hope you’ll help your yard recover — and that it will! Nature is so resilient…
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Strong and lovely–as I hope we all can be on the way out….
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Thanks, Louise. I like this poem for its simple elegance expressing a feeling everyone has had.
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