Emily Grosholz is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy at Penn State, and an advisory editor for the Hudson Review. Her recent chapbook of poetry Childhood (Accents Publishing, 2014), translated into Japanese by Atsuko Hayakawa, into Italian by Sara Amadori, and into French by Pascale Drouet, has raised over $2800 for UNICEF. The Stars of Earth: New and Selected Poems, with drawings by Farhad Ostovani, was just published by Word Galaxy Press.
Here and There
What will I miss when I’m gone?
The squeak of the wheelbarrow’s wheel,
Grace notes that strike with every slow
Revolution, and then the hushed, rusty
Answer in triplets from the invisible
Bird in the lackluster maples.
Branches, weeds, last autumn’s leavings
Raked from the moss-eaten paths, beds,
Borders, still untrimmed hedges.
Also the silent pale blue bells
Of my half dozen borage, ringed,
Self-seeded from the woods.
Daylilies my mother liked to set
Roadside in June. Pale Greek anemones
She never travelled far enough
To find wild, as I did once or twice, but
Maybe I’ll bring her some, if over there
Windflowers blow beside a cloudy sea.