MICROPOETRY
Eight Minutes Out
A poem from my latest collection, The Boxer of Quirinal
In the spirit of ongoing gratitude, I’m sharing with you a poem from my latest collection, The Boxer of Quirinal, as well as my personal reflection on the poem.
Just as Emily Dickinson wrote, “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” I hope that this poem takes the top of your head off — metaphorically, of course!
Eight Minutes Out
Like a ringmaster in the center ring
he keeps the planets circling perfectly;
the comets he allows to have their fling
but brings them back precisely on the day;
the asteroids trumpet and kneel on cue
while all the while he sends his radiance
to neighbor stars, across the Milky Way,
and on into the boundless provenance.
Hardly important — even worth noticing,
if a sliver of his bounty, minutes out,
barely 90 million miles away,
should in its last ten feet change anything —
even if extracting life from light,
a green exception to a winter’s day.
Commentary on Eight Minutes Out
Extracting life from light is a miracle. Chlorophyll has turned the planet green. Without it there would be no plant or animal life. Every feeding chain starts with it — except that some forms of life do not depend on chlorophyll.
John Barr’s poems have been published in six books, four fine press editions, and many magazines, including The New York Times, Poetry, and others. John was also the Inaugural President of the Poetry Foundation. His newest book, The Boxer of Quirinal, was published by Red Hen Press in June 2023. You can view more of his work at johnbarrpoetry.com and on Instagram (@johnbarrpoetry). Buy the book.
