A poem may be deceptively small in size but no less mesmerizing. Read “Crossing” aloud a few times, and the mouth and lungs fall into a different rhythm and pacing. “The Tradition,” Jericho Brown’s stunning book, contains so many moments of utter hypnosis like this — a long stare, a conversation constructed of mesmerizing layers, many unspoken, but moving far, far beyond a moment. Succinct phrases and sentences pack a deep power of knowledge and conviction. One thing — but also everything else. Let’s dedicate this poem to the Bahamas and all the energy it’s going to take to put that beautiful world back together. Let’s dedicate it to every next day. Selected by Naomi Shihab Nye
Crossing
By Jericho Brown
The water is one thing, and one thing for miles.
The water is one thing, making this bridge
Built over the water another. Walk it
Early, walk it back when the day grows dim, everyone
Rising just to find a way toward rest again.
We work, start on one side of the day
Like a planet’s only sun, our eyes straight
Until the flame sinks. The flame sinks. Thank God
I’m different. I’ve figured and counted. I’m not crossing
To cross back. I’m set
On something vast. It reaches
Long as the sea. I’m more than a conqueror, bigger
Than bravery. I don’t march. I’m the one who leaps.
Naomi Shihab Nye is the 2019-21 Young People’s Poet Laureate of the Poetry Foundation in Chicago. Her most recent book is “The Tiny Journalist.” Jericho Brown’s latest book, “The Tradition,” is longlisted for the National Book Award in poetry.
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