Don't call it hope or you'll scare it away

Candace Kronen

Call it window or thread or undone button, call it plump lips

and the slip of a sound, open palm with a single split seed

whispers of paw prints in a blanket of snow, baby hairs

and broccoli sprouts, call it half hug of a parenthesis,

handprint in the cave, defiant little fiddlehead

pushing through the dirt, call it a clearing

of the throat, first stroke of a bow, call it

Asha call it Violet call it Chekhov’s

smoking gun, call it Holmesian

pipe with a fresh tobacco tin,

pink streak of aurora

squinting through the

clouds, call it leaving

space for a casual

cosmic mystery,

call it, just call it

and don’t close

the door.

More from Candace Kronen ↓

1. @candacekronenpoetry on Instagram
2. Her Substack: Stories I'll Tell My Daughter
3. She is co-editor and publisher of If You Ever: Poems Inspired by Kim Addonizio
4. Listen to me read, When I can’t sleep, I Google how the world ends. by Candace on Instagram at @rembrandts.cure

Mentioned in this episode:

Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem Only

Write After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.

#WriteAfterOPO