It Took Some Time to Get the Hang of Breathing

Music: Serenade for Strings.
By Antonin Dvorak.
Performed by The Advent Chamber Orchestra at The Free Music Archive
under a Creative Commons Attribution/ShareAlike license.

Hear me read
the poem as
an MP3 file.

Watch me read
the poem as
a YouTube video.

Alpha List

Poems
to Children

Teen Poems

About This
Site

Poems for
Free

Copyright by
Nicholas Gordon

It took some time to get the hang of breathing.
I took your hand and led you to the reef.
So beautiful to handle you again
As when you were a child, or as when
I toweled you when you had hurt your hands.
We hung above the brains, vanilla branches,
Purple membranes laced with spider holes,
Bright yellow fish with philosophic foreheads,
Barracuda motionless as words.
Not often anymore are you my child,
Nor can I give you new life every day.
Yet here, again, I held you in the silence,
And it became too much to be what is.

Copyright by Nicholas Gordon. Free for personal or non-commercial use.



[about this site] [poems for free] [poem of the week]
[site policy] [about me] [links]