by Donald Lasko

      for Galway Kinnell

Say goodbye to the rocker – and the infant
buoyant in the mother’s liquid lap,
eyes bursting with the blinds-filtered sun.

Say goodbye to the simple white desk
with papers once overflowing, and the chair
where you sat in mid-air contemplation.

Say goodbye to the opened white doors,
the gleaming floorboards connecting, to the linens
and pillows stacked high up the wall still flowering.

Say goodbye to yourself in the mirror,
then the mirror itself and the pail entwined with
wandering vines, and the throw rug abstract-patterned.

Say goodbye to the brown knob turning,
the final white door now closing, and
then – to yourself, the stairs descending.

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Author Bio:

Donald Lasko  is a retired public high school English teacher. He and several of his colleagues at Columbia High School in South Orange-Maplewood had the privilege of receiving an NEH grant to study with Galway Kinnell and Sharon Olds from NYU School of Creative Writing. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and has an MA with additional doctoral studies in English at SUNY Stony Brook, where he was also a Lecturer in Education. In addition, he has taught creative writing and poetry for many years at Summer Institute for the Gifted on numerous college campuses, most recently at Princeton University. Beginning in 1963, he has had numerous poems published in “little” magazines and is a co-editor of a two-volume anthology This Is Just To Say: An Anthology Of Reading For Writers for use at the high school level. He is currently in a writers’ group conducted by Nancy Demme at Twin Rivers Library and is a member of Princeton Pro Musica, a semi-professional 100-voice chorus performing locally four concerts per year.