To celebrate National Poetry Month, The Poetry Box is sharing a Poem-of-the-Day, selected from various anthologies and individual poet collections that we have published over the years.
Please enjoy today’s selection: “Checking Fencelines” by Tricia Knoll, which appears in Broadfork Farm:
Checking Fencelines
~ for Gillian Galford and Dave Trevithick,
Wedding at Broadfork Farm on July 25, 2015
Marriage is hands-on farm management.
Balance books with dreams and sunrises.
Chase piglets that squirm through fences.
Let kittens abide in the hayloft.
Make dogs leave chickens alone.
Collect blue eggs in a wire basket.
Cultivate to reap.
Weed between bean sprouts.
When you hear the creek run,
bless it.
Every day, every week, every month
walk the perimeter of your marriage.
Look inward from the boundary,
seedlings here depend
on the sprawling tree there.
See one big picture
in your album pages.
Savor hedgerows.
Check the fenceline.
Share repairs.
The sun sets on the mountain
at different times each day.
Let love rock you
to sleep.
