Because I wanted you to address me

Because I sometimes wonder in wonder

Because I sometimes think I know

Because some things are sometimes perfect

Because other things are almost true

Sometimes I think I may have found a poem

Sometimes else I know I have

Sometimes the world wakes up together

Sometimes I’d falter so nearly there

I’d like to know of wonder and world

I’d like to behold the perfect rose

I’d like to know if it is sometimes true

That there is a line between poetry and prose?

Because sometimes your love of a thing will make you conjure tricks to edge closer to it. Howard Nemerov’s poem “Because You Asked about the Line between Prose and Poetry” is such a thing.

For your pleasure and mine –

Because You Asked about the Line between Prose and Poetry

Sparrows were feeding in a freezing drizzle
That while you watched turned into pieces of snow
Riding a gradient invisible
From silver aslant to random, white, and slow.

There came a moment that you couldn't tell.
And then they clearly flew instead of fell.

--Howard Nemerov