My Story Poem by Daniel Brick

On a windy day in early autumn
I went to my balcony with a folder
of all my love poems from twenty-five
years of writing. I read each one
in a voice that matched the wind's
passage across the still lush lawn
through the trees into a brightening
distance, which was this day's birth.

They were poems of lover and beloved,
their happiness, their fruitful conflicts,
their sojourns in seasons of plenty
or scarcity. And their gratitude to the Earth
for tilting on its axis one distant summer day,
so they were thrust into each other's arms.
Such were the poems I thrust into the wind's passage.

When I finished, the silence I felt around me
was a purely personal silence.Birds sang,
leaves rustled, traffic droned three blocks away,
and in the apartments around me, people readied
for the day's business, marshaling crucial facts,
rehearsing urgent speeches. Satisfied, couples
greeted each other and talked of inconsequential things.

I had heard the earliest bird songs
become a multitude singing from branches
and rooftops. Finches fly in wide swooping
circles. Two robins play a game of stealth,
temporarily silenced by their hunger. This is
just how I imagined my new world would begin,
with everything the same but profoundly altered.

I follow as always Goethe's example, who knew
when to turn desire into hope fulfilled, and
mind, naivete and sensuousness coalesce
into a new kind of poem which will be
perceived as a sacred response to this
new world birthing itself around me.
And through Goethe, Hafez offers his sweet advice.

As I gaze at this new world around me,
I am astonished by its abundance.
No trace of envy or disappointment,
this is an age of contentment from which
will spring only generous impulses, and
my voice, fortified by nature, amplified by agape,
will release songs of glory, shining with resolve.

This poem was inspired as a response
to MY STORY by Baharak Barzin.