april 9 {the poem project}

9.


STATIONERY
The moon did not become the sun.
It just fell on the desert,
in great sheets, reams
of silver handmade by you.
The night is your cottage industry now,
the day is your brisk emporium.
The world is full of paper.

Write to me.
Agha Shahid Ali

I found this poem in Staying Alive, the second “contemporary” poetry collection by Bloodaxe Books, and both are phenomenal. They are, admittedly, a bit Anglo-centric, but Bloodaxe is the best publisher of poetry today in England. This poem is simple and beautiful. I was going to give a copy to someone I fancied so he would either be shamed into writing to me or else just get creeped out. I never gave it to him.