Dream of a dead friend by Christian Wiman

Poems

April 2009

Dream of a dead friend

Burke

was right!

When the world was merely beautiful
And talk was keeping us from speech;
When the walk was almost over
And we were still just out of reach,
You closed my eyes
And led me by the hand
Through brush and low branches to stand
In the deep snow.

That cold was something I could feel.
That darkness was a choice.
Though I couldn’t see your face
I could hear your voice
Describe a sky
And a fine-needled pine tree,
A field, and snow, and you, and me.
Then you let go.

If I say the world is real
And outside my window is a dawn;
If I say the proof of love is grief
And trees are greener being gone,
Why, oh why
Will none of this be true
But in the moment I reach for you
Saying no, no.

Christian Wiman's most recent book is Every Riven Thing (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).

Webcasts

Poet George Green reads from his award-winning Lord Byron's Foot
George Green reads from Lord Byron's Foot, his collection of poetry that won the 2012 New Criterion Poetry Prize at a Friends & Young Friends event.

Celebration of the Life of Robert H. Bork, 1927–2012
From the memorial service for Robert H. Bork on April 9, 2013 at the Mayflower Hotel, Washington, DC.

James Panero on price gouging at the Met, with Fred Dicker
Are public museums like the Met overburdening visitors with "recommended" admission fees? Panero goes on 1300 AM to discuss his latest Daily News article during Fred Dicker's Albany-based radio program.

Weblog

Benghazi as Lazarus, Back from the Dead

by Roger Kimball

May 19, 2013 08:07 PM

Annals of the art world: everything old is new again

by Roger Kimball

May 19, 2013 03:15 PM

Lone Ranger Baffled Re: Sexual Assaults in the Military

by James Bowman

May 17, 2013 07:16 PM

The New Criterion

Poems

Webcasts

RSS feeds