“waiting for what? i’d like to know.

it is august.

my life is going to change. i feel it.”

raymond carver

Where Water Comes Together With Other Water

by Raymond Carver

I love creeks and the music they make. And rills, in glades and meadows, before they have a chance to become creeks. I may even love them best of all for their secrecy. I almost forgot to say something about the source! Can anything be more wonderful than a spring? But the big streams have my heart too. And the places streams flow into rivers. The open mouths of rivers where they join the sea. The places where water comes together with other water. Those places stand out in my mind like holy places. But these coastal rivers! I love them the way some men love horses or glamorous women. I have a thing for this cold swift water. Just looking at it makes my blood run and my skin tingle. I could sit and watch these rivers for hours. Not one of them like any other. I’m 45 years old today. Would anyone believe it if I said I was once 35? My heart empty and serene at 35! Five more years had to pass before it began to flow again. I’ll take all the time I please this afternoon before leaving my place alongside this river. It pleases me, loving rivers. Loving them all the way back to their source. Loving everything that increases me.

this morning by Raymond Carver

I love you. I’m glad I exist.

Mary Oliver, “What is the greatest gift?” / Danez Smith, “acknowledgements” / x / Raymond Carver, “Happiness” / Florence + the machine, “No Choir” / x / José Olivarez, “Citizen Illegal” / Arnold Lobel, from Frog and Toad / Frank O’Hara

“Dreams are what you wake up from.”

— Raymond Carver, The Bridle.

Raymond Carver, “Hummingbird,” from All of Us: The Collected Poems

rain, by raymond carver, 1996

“And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.” ~Raymond Carver, “Late Fragment" from “A New Path to the Waterfall,” 1989

[HELL AND EARTH]

Caitlyn Siehl - This is not a love poem/Fleetwood Mac - Landslide/ Raymond Carver - Where I'm calling from/ Lorde - Hard feelings /James Baldwin - Giovanni's Room/ Gunnar Ardelius - I need you more than I love you and I love you to bits/ Lily King - Writers and lovers/ Raymond Carver - what we talk about when we talk about love/ Paramore - In the mourning

Write me a poem she said a love poem All poems are love poems I said Raymond Carver

The Poem I Didn’t Write

by Raymond Carver

Here is the poem I was going to write earlier, but didn’t because I heard you stirring. I was thinking again about that first morning in Zurich. How we woke up before sunrise. Disoriented for a minute. But going out onto the balcony that looked down over the river, and the old part of the city. And simply standing there, speechless. Nude. Watching the sky lighten. So thrilled and happy. As if we’d been put there just at that moment.

Part V: 15 More Favourite Poems

I Bargained with Life for a Penny, by Jessie B. Rittenhouse

Rain, by Raymond Carver

Poems from Dear Sal, by Jeremy Radin

Starlings in Winter, and

In Blackwater Woods, by Mary Oliver

Two Insomnias, and

Let the Lover Be, and

Without Cause, by Rumi

Life, by Charlotte Brontë

Spring and Fall, by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Departure, by Louise Glück

A Man Said to the Universe, by Stephen Crane

Short Song, by Justin Quinn

A Shropshire Lad XL, by A.E. Houseman

Idyll, by Siegfried Sassoon

See also Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four

Snow began falling late last night. Wet flakes dropping past windows, snow covering the skylights. We watched for a time, surprised and happy. Glad to be here, and nowhere else.

Raymond Carver, "The Gift" (excerpt)

the gift by Raymond Carver

Write me a poem she said a love poem, all poems are love poems I said

—Raymond Carver

Late Fragment

by Raymond Carver

And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.

From A New Path to the Waterfall, Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989.