"Time to be the fine line of light" by Carrie Fountain

[View this email on a browser]( [Forward to a friend]( [facebook-icon]( [tumblr-icon]( [twitter-icon]( October 19, 2017 [Time to be the fine line of light]( [Carrie Fountain]( between the blind and the sill, nothing really. There are so many things that destroy. To think solely of them is as foolish and expedient as not thinking of them at all. All I want is to be the river though I return again and again to the clouds. All I want is to stop beginning sentences with All I want. No—no really all I want is this morning: my daughter and my son saying “Da!” back and forth over breakfast, cracking each other up while eating peanut butter toast and raspberries, making a place for the two of them I will, eventually, no longer be allowed to enter. Time to be the fine line. Time to practice being the line. And then maybe the darkness. [Like this on Facebook]( [Share via Twitter]( Copyright © 2017 Carrie Fountain. Used with permission of the author. [illustration]( About This Poem “I started this poem when my son was just beginning to acquire language, and it’s continued to grow since then, as have my children. The poem has acquired its own language and, like a lot of my writing, it returns to my obsessions with God and parenthood.” —Carrie Fountain Carrie Fountain is the author of Instant Winner (Penguin Books, 2014). She is currently a writer-in-residence at St. Edward’s University and lives in Austin, Texas. [Instant Winner by Carrie Fountain]( Poetry by Fountain [Instant Winner]( (Penguin Books, 2014) "Poem" by Joy Katz [read-more]( "The World Seems..." by Gregory Orr [read-more]( "Letter [Persephone to Demeter]" by Rachel Zucker [read-more]( Poem-a-Day If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a [monthly donation]( or [one-time gift]( to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today’s poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! [Small-Blue-RGB-poets.org-Logo]( Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit [Poets.org](. You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click [here](. © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038