"Poem Beginning with Of Course" by Jack Ridl

Poem Beginning with Of Course

Of course there are days when
the story slowly becomes one
we have known before: quiet

except for the highway
humming a mile away
while we still sleep within

the dream that hasn’t yet
awakened us. The morning
will slip away like the dew

on the hostas, ferns, and
butterbur. Mid-afternoon
will hang its heavy heat

on the spiders’ webs
while the cosmos droop
their startle of pink into

the bees’ bypass. Our ragged
cushions sit on the haphazard
disassembly of Adirondacks

we bought when we wondered
if we would stay where time
now settles into itself, the two

of us waiting within what lingers.

Jack Ridl

Jack Ridl’s Practicing to Walk Like a Heron (Wayne State UP) received the ForeWords Review Gold Medal for poetry. Broken Symmetry (WSU Press) was named the year’s best book of poetry by The Society of Midland Authors. Losing Season (CavanKerry Press) was recognized by the Institute for International Sport as the year’s best sports-related book. Former U.S. Poet Laureate, Billy Collins, selected his Against Elegies for the chapbook award from The NYC Center for Book Arts. Ridl is co-author with Peter Schakel of Approaching Literature (Bedford / St. Martin’s). Ridl served as Honorary Chancellor of the Poetry Society of Michigan, only the second poet presented with that honor. The Carnegie Foundation (CASE) named him Michigan’s Professor of the Year. More than 90 of his students are published.

Photo Credit: Staff