On Looking
by Leah Umansky
After The Slowdown
1.
We’re born to pay attention to our life,
to see the folds, the knots, not just the starched
line or crease of a day or an hour.
2.
Once, I thought a bird was sleeping, floating, in the reservoir, who wasn’t
sleeping at all, but gliding, there beneath the surface
kicking
s k i m m i n g
laundering
ripples into the water’s sheen. It was so pristine, and then I thought about the rippling of clouds, their tousling overhead — that beauty sitting there above me.
3.
I marveled at the clouds on the plane home from Kansas City, the way they foamed over and over, sleeving the sun, sleeving the blue, as we slipped through sky. I looked at the clouds, through the clouds, and then around my seat, my aisle, at the people around me, their seat trays, their drinks, their window blinds. I thought: do the flight attendants ever get tired of the view? Do they ever get tired of the sky? Do they ever get tired of looking?
How can anyone
1.
We’re born to pay attention to our life,
to see the folds, the knots, not just the starched
line or crease of a day or an hour.
2.
Once, I thought a bird was sleeping, floating, in the reservoir, who wasn’t
sleeping at all, but gliding, there beneath the surface
kicking
s k i m m i n g
laundering
ripples into the water’s sheen. It was so pristine, and then I thought about the rippling of clouds, their tousling overhead — that beauty sitting there above me.
3.
I marveled at the clouds on the plane home from Kansas City, the way they foamed over and over, sleeving the sun, sleeving the blue, as we slipped through sky. I looked at the clouds, through the clouds, and then around my seat, my aisle, at the people around me, their seat trays, their drinks, their window blinds. I thought: do the flight attendants ever get tired of the view? Do they ever get tired of the sky? Do they ever get tired of looking?
How can anyone
Leah Umansky is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently, OF TYRANT (Word Works Books 2024.) She earned her MFA in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and has curated and hosted The COUPLET Reading Series in NYC since 2011. She is the creator of the STAY BRAVE Substack which encourages women-identifying creatives to inspire other women-identifying creatives to stay brave in their creative pursuits. Her creative work can be found in such places as The New York Times, The Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A Day, USA Today, POETRY, PBS, and American Poetry Review. She is a writing coach who has taught workshops to all ages at such places as Poets House, Hudson Valley Writers Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering and elsewhere. She is working on a fourth collection of poems ORDINARY SPLENDOR, on wonder, joy and love. She can be found at www.leahumansky.com or @leah.umansky on IG.