“What a performance is” by John L. Miller, published in Andes, released in May 2025, has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. To choose our nominees this year was especially challenging, for we published 31 books, including 1,080 poems in total. Among all of these amazing and moving poems, this poem continues to be one of my favorites.
I love how this poem is an Ars Poetica in the setting of a poetry reading, but with the listener in mind. It fills me with a sense of community and honors the unspoken communication and connection between speaker and listener. And then that killer last line—so unexpected, yet reassuring—giving this poem unlimited layers of meaning.
Please enjoy the poem, and feel free to leave a comment.
What a performance is
by John L. Miller
is to make you listen, who happens to listen,
to make you pause, stop what you do,
even carrying what you carry, you decide
for a little longer you can bear it,
but you come to the doorway,
listen when it’s said in the pause,
the moment of the room, you
attuned to the speaker, the song,
nothing else happens, yet you
change, you are given intention,
given invitation, you sit beside yourself,
place at your feet what brought you,
what you thought you carried
was not what weighed you,
you pass from your hand
to your hand the gift brought to you,
it is smaller than you believed,
a shiver, a heartbeat, an eye blink, you become
wholly anew in the longest minute
of the Calvary of risking, the listening
when it ends is now your day
surging forward. Know you
are never accidental.
from Andes by John L. Miller (The Poetry Box, 2025)
nominated for The Pushcart Prize by Shawn Aveningo Sanders, editor/publisher
