By Jorie Graham

The earth said
remember me.
The earth said
don’t let go,

said it one day
when I was
accidentally
listening, I

heard it, I felt it
like temperature,
all said in a
whisper—build to-

morrow, make right be-
fall, you are not
free, other scenes
are not taking

place, time is not filled,
time is not late, there is
a thing the emptiness
needs as you need

emptiness, it
shrinks from light again &
again, although all things
are present, a

fact a day a
bird that warps the
arithmetic of per-
fection with its

arc, passing again &
again in the evening
air, in the pre-
vailing wind, making no

mistake—yr in-
difference is yr
principal beauty
the mind says all the

time—I hear it—I
hear it every-
where. The earth
said remember

me. I am the
earth it said. Re-
member me.

• Nature

Poet Bio

Jorie Graham was born in New York City, but raised in France and Italy. She attended the Sorbonne before coming to America where she attended New York University to earn a B.F.A. and the University of Iowa to earn an M.F.A. She has taught at numerous universities, most recently the University of Iowa and Harvard. See More By This Poet

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