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Flowers in rain with golden light

Letter to America by Teddy Macker

One Poem

To the End

i say praise
praise the sound of this rain
i say lament 
grieve shake collapse 
throw up your hands
but praise
praise this hard passing rain
the prosperous near sounds
of dripping-from-eaves
the surround sound
of clement iris roar
and let the wonder come
that still it falls upon us
down to this earth
night’s kindness 
total mother
filling the creek for the badger
gracing the sleep of your daughter
running its hooves on the tin roof 
of the barn 
hear it leave now move out 
towards the islands
drifting shawl of mercy
drawn over anchored boats
bird-spattered buoys
touching the back of a dolphin as it rises
for a breath
touching the slick maximal back
two drops on the dorsal
which now slips back 
under 
into the cold
faultless  
cathedral

 

 

 

Teddy MackerTeddy Macker is the author of the collection of poetry This World (White Cloud Press, 2015; foreword by Brother David Steindl-Rast). His writing appears in Antioch Review, New Letters, Orion, The Massachusetts Review, Resurgence & Ecologist, The Sun, Tin House, and various anthologies. A lecturer of literature in the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara, he lives with his wife and daughters on a farm in Carpinteria, California, where he maintains an orchard.

Header photo by Bachkova Natalia, courtesy Shutterstock. Photo of Teddy Macker by Briana Perry.