Welcome, dear blog readers, for another installment of Pick-a-Poem. Each Wednesday, the Jet Fuel Review blog features a new poem that we hope you’ll enjoy. All of our poems are chosen from the large library gathered at the Poetry Daily website. They feature a new poem every single day, so if you’re looking for a place to discover more poetry, that would be the place. This week we’re featuring Expanding space by Alice Major.
According to her website, Alice Major is a Scottish-Canadian poet who was Edmonton’s first poet laureate. She has been published widely and her work includes nine collections of poetry, two novels for young adults, and –her latest — a collection of essays about poetry and science. She has received many accolades in Edmonton and is an active supporter of the arts and writing community in general.
Expanding space by Alice Major
Straight, white jet trail
holds the two halves of heaven
together, like a zipper.Space is growing bigger all the time,
as the empty regions between galaxies
swell, push apart the fine detail,
the sparkling buttons.My father and the little dog admire,
one—the blue cloth of sky,
one—the fall-snuffled earth
with its park litter, its low-slung emulsion
of jackrabbit, common-or-garden cat,
chicken bones from dumpsters
raided by ravens.We take the path up and over
a small hill, a man-made swelling
planted with saplings. My father points
to the blue, tells me yet again of moors
climbed with his father. One memory
of the few that linger still for him, a trace
of long-past passage.No other detail to that vast interior
of sky. Just the white seam,
its zippered, interlacing coils
spreading at the centre.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s featured poem! For more posts like this, click here.
— Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan
