It’s not a bad time-filling activity to be flipping pages looking for a poem. Not necessarily a specific poem; not necessarily a specific topic. Just quietly eyeing pages like you might eye the shelves of your pantry or refrigerator for a snack. Sometimes you find a poem that you think should be friends with another poem. Like last month, finding Gary Lawless’s “Some Clear Night” and thinking it should be friends with Merwin’s “For the Anniversary of My Death.” (Maybe they are already friends.)
Here’s another. I was rereading some Richard Wilbur this morning, and I think his poem “Man Running” ought to be good friends with Les Murray’s “An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow.”
(Maybe they are already friends.)