Doorway
by Miriam Levine
The green edge like a shore; the precise diamond;
arched shelters; willows’ drag mid-distance;
five soccer nets, widely ranked, apart
like mist-filled doorways of palace rooms
leading straight to each other: they have
become your view angled from a corner.
Under tough grass on which dew has dried
deep earth is seeping. You don’t want to touch
that iris the sun must strike—or disturb
the bright figure who holds a yoga pose.
Your own small figure is far too obscure
to make an impression on the landscape.
Yet like one made a stranger after years
on fabled ships, though you have left your room
with level floor for only one hour,
you adore what is not yours and stop
at the quarried pillar on each side
of which a narrow space would let you in.
“Doorway” is featured in the author’s collection Saving Daylight (2018).
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: “Doorway” describes the view of a field in Concord, New Hampshire. Photo by the author.
NOTE: New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. Of the 50 U.S. states, New Hampshire is the fifth smallest by area and the tenth least populous, with a little over 1.3 million residents. Concord is the state capital, while Manchester is the largest city. New Hampshire’s motto, “Live Free or Die,” reflects its role in the American Revolutionary War; its nickname, “The Granite State,” refers to its extensive granite formations and quarries. It is best known nationwide for holding the first primary in the U.S. presidential election cycle, giving rise to the phrase “As New Hampshire goes, so goes the nation.”
PHOTO: Beautiful fall colors in Franconia Notch State Park, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire.
MAP: The city of Concord within the state of New Hampshire.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Miriam Levine is the author of Saving Daylight, her fifth collection of poetry. Another collection, The Dark Opens, was chosen by Mark Doty for the Autumn House Poetry Prize. Her other books include, Devotion, a memoir, and In Paterson, a novel. Her work has appeared in American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, and Ploughshares. A fellow of the NEA and a grantee of the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, she lives in Florida and New Hampshire. For more information about her work, please visit miriamlevine.com.
POETRY and PLACES 