The Gift

At five o’clock a patch of sky unfolds its hues
like Italian marbled paper in blues and purples.

As dawn breaks, the ocean wakes in wrinkles,
untangling on the horizon. By sunrise,

the ocean stifles a yawn and wraps the beach
in waves: an early morning surprise.

Kim M. Russell, 24^th April 2018

 

My response to The Poetry School NaPoWriMo prompt for Day  24: The Gift

Ali says that there are so many brilliant ‘gift’ poems that it’s hard for him to restrain himself to just a handful:  Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Valentine’, Michael Donaghy’s ‘The Present’, Billy Collins’ ‘The Lanyard’, Robert Frost’s ‘The Gift Outright’. But today’s example poems are by poets a little less well-known in the UK: ‘The Gift’ by Li-Young Lee, an American poet, born in Indonesia (whose great-grandfather was the first Republican president of China) and Rita Dove’s ‘For Sophie Who’ll Be in First Grade in the Year 2000’. And we can can write poems about receiving a gift as well as giving one.