login | register

.

Article Resources

Poetry: From the May/June 2008 issue | See all poetry



Not Necessarily at Rest

Rocks stacked at corners of a squatter’s camp,
colored bottles hanging from a tree.
Broken oyster shells
lining a dirt walkway to match the hems
of clouds trundling their gossip
over open-air markets toward the sea.

How can they not be flattered
at our puny attempts at beauty—the gods
who look down, the dead
who sometimes look up? Yearning works
through us, whiskers to tail, the way
a yawning cat converts stretching into praise.

- Lance Larsen

Lance Larsen, author of Erasable Walls, teaches at Brigham Young University. He received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in poetry in 2007. 

Book  Image

→   Purchase from Amazon.com

→   Purchase from an independent bookstore