This poem for you all on this day that feels, somehow, both round and prime:
Reasons For Numbers
by Lisel Mueller
1
Because I exist
2
Because there must be a reason
why I should cast a shadow
3
So that good can try to be better
and become best
and beginning grow into middle and end
4
So the round earth can have its corners
and the house will not fall down around me
So the seasons will go on holding hands
and the string quartet play forever
5
For the invention of Milton and Shakespeare
and the older invention
of the wild rose, mother
to the petals
of my hand
6
Because
five
senses
are
not
enough
7
Because luck
is always odd
and the division
of history
into lean and fat
years
mysterious
8
To make the spider
possible
and the black ball which tells me
the game is up
but also to let
the noise of the world
make itself heard
as music
9
For the orbit of Jupiter
Saturn
Venus
Mars
Mercury
Uranus
Mickey Mantle
Lou Gehrig
Babe Ruth
10
Created functionless, for the sheer play
of the mind in its tens of thousands of moves
There is nothing like it in nature
Poetry Friday is being hosted today at Teaching Authors. Go see!
