#MIDDLEBURY
Resolution
Lia Purpura
There’s the thing I shouldn’t do
and yet, and now I have
the rest of the day to
make up for, not
undo, that can’t be done
but next time,
think more calmly,
breathe, say here’s a new
morning, morning,
morning,
(though why would that
work, it isn’t even
hidden, hear it in there,
more, more,
more?)
About this poem
“The way whole words and sounds nest in other words and sounds kept the surprises coming. By just recognizing kinned sounds, the poem spoke itself into being in a way that felt independent of my making.”
– Lia Purpura
About Lia Purpura
Lia Purpura is the author of “It Shouldn’t Have Been Beautiful” (Penguin Books, 2015). She teaches at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and lives in Baltimore.
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
(c) 2016 Lia Purpura. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
