What Shines Does Not Always Need To

What Shines Does Not Always Need To

By Adam Clay

Because today we did not leave this world,

We now embody a prominence within it,

Even amidst its indifference to our actions,

Whether they be noiseless or not.

After all, nonsense is its own type of silence,

Lasting as long as the snow on your

Tongue. You wonder why each evening

Must be filled with a turning away, eyes to the lines

Of the hardwood floor as if to regret the lack

Of movement in a single day, our callous hope

For another wish put to bed with the others in a slow

Single-file line. I used to be amazed at the weight

An ant could carry. I used to be surprised by

Survival. But now I know the mind can carry

Itself to the infinite power. Like the way snow

Covers trauma to the land below it, we only

Believe the narrative of what the eye can see.

About This Poem

“I wrote this poem thinking about the recent death of a young poet and how loss can mean both the absence of a person but also the absence of the work that could have been created, had the poet’s life not been cut so short. This idea of creation, of course, extends beyond art and into other facets of life—the line our lives will follow isn’t always straight or straightforward. Within the reality of living another day lives the possibility of creation, despite the sense of loss we might feel right beneath the surface.”

—Adam Clay