The reader is tired of her book
its many characters its twists and turns
of plot she feels a sadness for the trees
cut and pulped to make the paper the writer
toiling at his desk she lets it drop
into the fire writhing
open as if all it wanted
was to flower again her face aglow
aghast in booklight the gray petals
freckled with letters the paper
collapsing into ash
The fourth poetry collection by John Witte is Disquiet (University of Washington Press, 2015). His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, AGNI, The American Poetry Review, and elsewhere, and have been included in The Norton Introduction to Literature, among other anthologies. He is the author of Loving the Days (Wesleyan University Press, 1978), The Hurtling (Orchises Press, 2005), and Second Nature (University of Washington Press, 2008). He is also the editor of numerous books, including The Collected Poems of Hazel Hall (Oregon State University Press, 2000). The recipient of two writing fellowships from the NEA, a residency at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and other grants and awards, he lives with his family in Eugene, Oregon, where he teaches literature at the University of Oregon. (updated 10/2015)