Believe This by Richard Levine
Believe This
Richard LevineAll morning, doing the hard, root-wrestling
work of turning a yard from the wild
to a gardener’s will, I heard a bird singing
from a hidden, though not distant, perch;
a song of swift, syncopated syllables sounding
like, Can you believe this, believe this, believe?
Can you believe this, believe this, believe?
And all morning, I did believe. All morning,
between break-even bouts with the unwanted,
I wanted to see that bird, and looked up so
I might later recognize it in a guide, and know
and call its name, but even more, I wanted
to join its church. For all morning, and many
a time in my life, I have wondered who, beyond
this plot I work, has called the order of being,
that givers of food are deemed lesser
than are the receivers. All morning,
muscling my will against that of the wild,
to claim a place in the bounty of earth,
seed, root, sun and rain, I offered my labor
as a kind of grace, and gave thanks even
for the aching in my body, which reached
beyond this work and this gift of struggle.
MARGINALIA
Fixing things in my life. Writing letters to myself. I’m almost done.
ABOUT RICHARD LEVINE
Richard Levine (he/him) is the author of Now in Contest (Fernwood Press, 2023), Selected Poems (FutureCycle Press, 2019), Contiguous States (Finishing Line Press, 2018), and five chapbooks, including The Cadence of Mercy (Finishing Line Press, 2014) and Snapshots from a Battle (Headwaters Press, 2001). He coedited Invasion of Ukraine 2022: Poems, has written for the American Book Review, and is an advisory editor of BigCityLit.com. His poetry has appeared in American Life… (more)
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ENDNOTES
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veronica
welcome back