Poets at 50 quote Ginsburg and Snyder,
if you’re a woman you’ll channel Mary Oliver,
and whisper every line of Wild Geese as you
fold the towels and pour the coffee.

Poets at 50 feel the anger and the disregard,
know what it means to poke with a stick 
at the indifferent world. 

Poets at 50 know inexcusable love and loss 
and sidewalks bloodied the morning after 
and how helpless we were and how it enraged us. 

Poets at 50 know that fear cripples us, turns
our hands to ice, freezes our pen in mid-
thought and leaves us voiceless. 

Poets at 50 know to hold on, know the voice 
is as potent cold as hot, and anger, too, and love, 
and sadness, and Mary Oliver, asking yet again 
what we're doing this one precious life.