Poems for 2/7/22 - Snapdragons in the Market by Lee Upton and Joy by Clarissa Scott Delaney

Snapdragons at the Market

By Lee Upton

January 31, 2022

I wish I’d taken you
out of the bucket
and brought you home.
Which way would the sun
flow into the room
for your clocks?
You drank a bee
and it stung your lips.
Or are those jawbones
or paws
on your stems,
or curdled grudges?
As if anyone could own you.
For the second night
I am still thinking of you
even as sleep comes with its
soft little sack.
You own me, I suppose.

Published in the print edition of the February 7, 2022, issue of The New Yorker. Joy

Clarissa Scott Delaney

Joy shakes me like the wind that lifts a sail, Like the roistering wind That laughs through stalwart pines. It floods me like the sun On rain-drenched trees That flash with silver and green. I abandon myself to joy— I laugh—I sing. Too long have I walked a desolate way, Too long stumbled down a maze Bewildered.

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on February 6, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.