by John Tessitore

‏‏‎ ‎

for Emma

 

Today the sun was a friend,
a hand on the shoulder,
like a father.

I wanted to give you its calm
and be its surrogate
in the shadow,

to point your eyes toward green
flames of moss, the etchings
on limestone,

how seasons change as we climb,
how it’s closer to winter
in the pines,

how sassafras leaves will capture
the light like street lamps
leading us home.

I wanted to give you shirrin-yoku,
the peace of noticing,
the opening.

To someone in pain a quiet walk
may seem like weak medicine,
but take heart

and resist the impulse to follow
in the steps of the ones
who love you

unless they offer this wisdom:
the sun is just as happy
on its own.

‏‏‎ ‎

© John Tessitore

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John Tessitore (he/him) has been a newspaper reporter, a magazine writer, and a biographer. He has taught British and American history and literature at colleges around Boston and has directed national policy studies on education, civil justice, and cultural policy. He serves as Co-Editor Across the Pond for The Wee Sparrow Poetry Press. His poems have appeared in the The American Journal of Poetry, The Wallace Stevens Journal, The Ekphrastic Review, Gastropoda and Wild Roof and elsewhere. He has also published six chapbooks and a novella available at www.johntessitore.com. 

You can find him on Twitter: @JohnTessitore2, Instagram: @jtessitorewriter, TikTok: @Jtessitorewriter, Facebook: JohnTessitore, Writer.

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