American Life in Poetry: Column 172
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

I don't often talk about poetic forms in this  column, thinking that most
of my readers aren't  interested in how the clock works and would rather 
be given the time. But the following poem by  Veronica Patterson
of Colorado has a subtitle  referring to a form, the senryu, and I thought 
it might be helpful to mention that the senryu  is a Japanese form similar
to haiku but dealing  with people rather than nature. There; enough said. 
Now you can forget the form and enjoy the poem,  which is a beautiful
sketch of a marriage.

Marry Me  
      a senryu sequence

when I come late to bed
I move your leg flung over my side-- 
that warm gate
nights you're not here 
I inch toward the middle
of this boat, balancing
when I turn over in sleep
you turn, I turn, you turn,
I turn, you  
some nights you tug the edge 
of my pillow under your cheek, 
look in my dream
pulling the white sheet
over your bare shoulder 
I marry you again

American Life in Poetry is made possible by  
The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), 
publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported 
by the Department of English at the University of 
Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c) 2000 by 
Veronica Patterson, whose most recent book of poetry 
is "This Is the Strange Part," Pudding House  
Publications, 2002. Poem reprinted from "Swan, 
What Shores?" New York University Press, 2000,  
by permission of Veronica Patterson and New York 
University Press. Introduction copyright (c) 2008 
by The Poetry Foundation.  The introduction's author,  
Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate 
Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress 
from 2004-2006.  We do not accept unsolicited 
manuscripts.   ******************************