Ten Degrees by Tom Chandler
Ten Degrees
Tom ChandlerHow beautiful the sun as it skims
across the air in the hush of ten degrees,
disc of palest yellow hope along a skyof circumstance; how beautifully we watch it fall,
the random tern, forgotten mole,
the infant tree inside rough winter bark.How beautiful this frost, female fingers
tracing down the glass, how beautiful
this world too cold to criticize itself;how beautiful Earth’s creatures are, happy
and forever safe from the only perfect tragedy,
which is of course to never have been born.
MARGINALIA
It’s my mother’s birthday today, one of those events I always dread. Too many histories, too many explanations, too many pasts. Hardly fitting for this page. And since I’m still on a Chandler high, here, another poem. What could be more apt?
ABOUT TOM CHANDLER
Tom Chandler is poet laureate of Rhode Island emeritus. He has been named Phi Beta Kappa Poet at Brown University and has been a featured poet at the Robert Frost homestead. His poems have been read by Garrison Keillor on National Public Radio on several occasions. His newest book of poems is Toy Firing Squad. (Source)
Read more poems by Tom Chandler • Find books by this poet on Amazon • Bookshop • Website • Or view my library
ENDNOTES
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