Ten Things Spoiled For Poetry

The green sunlight through August leaves,

Old men on front porches in rocking chairs,

Apples and pumpkins and woodsmoke in autumn,

Stretching cats,

Rainbows,

Any smell emitted from your grandmother's kitchen,

Wandering clouds,

Shipless oceans,

The heart's wisdom,

And that time in summer, just before twilight,

when children's parents call them in to bed.