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    A Poem from Forrest Gander’s Be With, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

    by forrestgander Apr 15, 2019 1 minute

    The following is a poem from Be With, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. 

    *

    The Sounding

    What closes and then
    luminous? What opens
    and then dark? And into
    what do you stumble
    but this violet
    extinction? With
    froth on your lips.
    8:16 a.m. The morning’s
    sleepy face

    rolls its million
    eyes. Migrating flocks
    of your likesame species
    incandesce
    into transparency.
    A birdwatcher lifts

    her binoculars. The con-
    tinuous with or without
    your words
    situates you here
    (here (here)) even while
    you knuckle your eyes
    in disbelief. Those

    voices you love (human
    and not), can you
    hear their echoes
    hissing away like
    fiery scale
    from an ingot hammered
    on some
    blacksmith’s anvil?
    And behind those
    voices, what is that
    blowing
    the valves of your ears open
    as black rain,
    not in torrents, but
    ceaselessly comes
    unchecked out of everywhere
    with nothing
    to slacken it.

    __________________________________

    From Be With. Used with permission of New Directions Publishing. Copyright © 2018 by Forrest Gander.

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