This is Poetry Moment on WPSU – a weekly program featuring the work of contemporary Pennsylvania poets. Your host is poet and author Marjorie Maddox, a 2023 Monson Arts Fellow, author of more than 20 books, and Professor Emerita of English and Creative Writing at the Lock Haven campus of Commonwealth University.
Welcome to Poetry Moment. I’m Marjorie Maddox
Look around. Place and identity are inextricably entwined. How have places where you’ve lived shaped who you’ve become? What role in your story has Pennsylvania played? In today’s poem, “Sometimes I Wake Early,” Michael Simms shares his answer.
Michael Simms is a poet, novelist and publisher. He is the Founding Editor of Autumn House Press and Vox Populi Sphere; and the author of five collections of poetry and six speculative novels. He lives with his wife, the philosopher and psychologist Eva-Maria Simms, in the historic neighborhood of Mt Washington, which overlooks the three rivers of Pittsburgh. Simms was awarded a Certificate of Recognition from the Pennsylvania Legislature for his service to the arts.
Waking early in the dark, you may notice what you didn’t in the light. In the quiet, your house—and the world—may look different. Looking at the stillness, what will you remember? What will you learn about yourself and the state where you live? In his poem, Michael Simms calls us to consider more closely the life story we are creating, right here, right now, beside a mountain we call “our” mountain, or overlooking a city whose every light we know.
Here’s “Sometimes I Wake Early” by Michael Simms
Sometimes I Wake Early
Sometimes I wake early and walk through the house
touching doors that swing into darkness
my bare toes searching out
toys and magazines
Outside it might be raining, a full wind
filling the trees like sails. I sit
in the love seat under the bay window, hugging
myself, letting the children’s dreams wash over me
like waves
Last night we took a friend for a walk along the edge
of our mountain. She looked out
over the city, the rivers, the sultry slopes
crowded with sumac and maple
and said So you know where you live
Yes, in the darkness and rain
our small house stands in a huddle of houses
under the clouds, in a story
we ourselves are telling
From the collection Nightjar by Michael Simms (Ragged Sky Press, 2021). The poem also appeared in the poetry anthology The Wonder of Small Things, edited by James Crews (Hachette, 2023).
That was “Sometimes I Wake Early” by Michael Simms. Thanks for listening.
Listen for Poetry Moment with Marjorie Maddox on Mondays during Morning Edition and All Things Considered on WPSU. You can view more episodes at wpsu.org/poetrymoment.
Our theme music is by Eric Ian Farmer.
