<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I Recover a Poem Written in the Summer of a Pandemic </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><b class=""></b><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Sometimes we lose what’s important:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A friend who dies alone</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A memory gone into the cobwebs of the mind</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A poem in the bowels of cyberspace </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">During the months of Covid</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">In the park before dawn</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Walking miles along the river </div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">To keep sane</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><i class=""></i><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Red skies precede sunshine </div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Bees and butterflies circle asters</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Tugs pull fifty times their weight</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">I’ve never noticed before</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><i class=""></i><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A gift of awareness arrives</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">In the middle of a plague</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Balancing suffering and illumination</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">Thousands dead more on the way</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><i class=""></i><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A porgy dangling from a fisherman’s rod</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Dying fish flapping along asphalt</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I snap an image on my Iphone </div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">Befuddled as a crow assaulting his reflection</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><i class=""></i><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Birds and trees and the politics of rage</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The colors of September drifting</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A hawk flying low snares a pigeon</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">A friend on a ventilator</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A bevy of quartrains on a page</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Assume a shape</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Pleasing and comprehensible</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">Meaning what? Ask the sick</i></div><div style="margin: 0px; text-indent: 36px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><i class=""></i><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Sometimes we find what is important:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Innuendo important as facts</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Facts important as meaning</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A rekindled urge to express both</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Barry Denny</div></div></body></html>