Poem of the Week: “Nomad Heart” by Paula Meehan

It’s our favorite month of the year: April! … also known as National Poetry Month. Our campus stalls have already been graced with “potty poetry,” and we will continue celebrating online by posting even more poetry than usual.
To start with, here is an enlightening poem about changing times and weary souls.

Nomad Heart

for Kevin Page

Sometimes looking to the cold wintry stars
you can feel the planet move as it whirls
in the flux of the galaxy, the whole
path of the milky way buzzing like a hive.

They say it’s better to journey than arrive—
halting being the usual rigmarole
of move-along-shift.  Sometimes the soul
just craves a place to rest, safe from earthly wars.

The city lights come on in twos and threes
and leaves are freezing hard in mucky pools,
cars are stuck in jams or droning home.

If we’re not brought to our knees, we’ll fall to our knees
in thanks, in praise, in trust, in hope—the rule
of law mapped clear on heaven’s ample dome.

–Paula Meehan, from Painting Rain (2009)