Academy of American Poets
View Cart | Log In 
Subscribe | More Info 
Find a Poet or Poem
Advanced Search >
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jean Valentine
Jean Valentine
The author of many collections of poetry, Jean Valentine has received such honors as the National Book Award, being selected for the Yale Series of Younger Poets and the Wallace Stevens Award...
More >
Adopt a Poet | Add to Notebook | E-mail to Friend | Print
Hospital: strange lights  
by Jean Valentine

I needed a friend but
I was in the other room
—not just the other room,
another frame
dragging         blue
or brighter blue:           strange lights:

The doctor singing from The Song of Songs
'in the secret places of the stairs'

Us standing there	  in the past
as we were
in life
you turning and turning my coat buttons



Share Digg StumbleUpon Facebook E-mail to Friend



From Little Boat by Jean Valentine. Copyright © 2008 by Jean Valentine. Reprinted with permission of Wesleyan University Press.
Smaller TypeSmaller Type | Home | Help | Contact Us | Privacy Policy Copyright © 1997 - 2012 by Academy of American Poets.