Poem in July

Samuel Amadon

I felt perfected along the rectangle
By its ragged side

Fences trees and mist dropping
Some space for the flowers

I set an image in my head where
Bushes in their out of focus

Made a green dearth about the door
I wanted to do a book on

Pages left in the heat or rain
But my desire seemingly disappeared

Picked up by a car in the middle of
A pack of cigarettes

This trip into the forest
The trees trading with memory to

Frame the various breaks
The pleasures of small laws cut

Behind the mower with my eyes
Running the grass blades

We don’t really get any older
I can see what that means

About This Poem

“We have a really terrific screen porch on the back of our house in South Carolina, and when the summer gets ridiculous, I sometimes go sit in the heat for longer than I should. It feels like being underwater, but protected, like in a shark cage. I wrote this poem out of that feeling.”
—Samuel Amadon

Samuel Amadon is the author of The Hartford Book (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2012). He teaches at the University of South Carolina and lives in Columbia, South Carolina

Poetry by Amadon

The Hartford Book

(Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2012)

"The neighbor’s buddy watching my screen through the window" by francine j. harris

"Dear Lonely Animal," by Oni Buchanan

"Becoming Weather, 21" by Chris Martin

Poem-a-Day

Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.

Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.

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July 29, 2016