"A Gate" by Donna Masini

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( April 5, 2018 [A Gate]( [Donna Masini]( I have oared and grieved, grieved and oared, treading a religion of fear. A frayed nerve. A train wreck tied to the train of an old idea. Now, Lord, reeling in violent times, I drag these tidal griefs to this gate. I am tired. Deliver me, whatever you are. Help me, you who are never near, hold what I love and grieve, reveal this green evening, myself, rain, drone, evil, greed, as temporary. Granted then gone. Let me rail, revolt, edge out, glove to the grate. I am done waiting like some invalid begging in the nave. Help me divine myself, beside me no Virgil urging me to shift gear, change lane, sing my dirge for the rent, torn world, and love your silence without veering into rage. [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( Copyright © 2018 Donna Masini. Used with permission of the author. [Donna Masini reads "A Gate."]( About This Poem “My sister was dead. During her illness I had prayed, or, rather, ricocheted from bargaining to demanding, to a kind of continual visceral begging. After her death, grieving, in despair, I found the world, its violence and destruction, unbearable. I was teaching Hopkins and Herbert. I was trying to learn how to drive. Driving and prayer seemed equally inscrutable. I paid lip service (good words for prayer) to The Cloud of Unknowing but I was lost. ‘Try to write a prayer,’ a friend said.” —Donna Masini [Donna Masini]( Donna Masini’s third book of poems, 4:30 Movie, is forthcoming from W. W. Norton in May. She is a professor of English at Hunter College, where she teaches in the graduate and undergraduate creative writing programs. She lives in New York City. Photo credit: Claire Holt [4:30 Movie]( Poetry by Masini [4:30 Movie]( (W. W. Norton, 2018) "Dirge Without Music" Edna St. Vincent Millay [read-more]( "here rests" by Lucille Clifton [read-more]( "Grief Work" by Natalie Diaz [read-more]( April Guest Editor: Tracy K. Smith Thanks to Tracy K. Smith, United States poet laureate and author of Life on Mars (Graywolf Press, 2011), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about [Smith]( and our [guest editors for the year.]( Help Support Poem-a-Day If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a [monthly donation]( or [one-time gift]( to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today’s poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit [Poets.org](. You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click [here](. © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038 From Our Advertisers [Advertisement](