Jean Valentine

Thursday morning ….. as we note the birth date of Jean Valentine (April 27, 1934 – December 29, 2020), American poet and New York State Poet Laureate from 2008 to 2010.

Her poetry collection, Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965–2003, was awarded the 2004 National Book Award for Poetry. Valentine published poems widely in literary journals and magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, and The American Poetry Review.

The New York Times described Valentine’s work as “minimalist, dreamlike poetry … distinguished by crystalline imagery followed by an unexpected stab of emotion.”

Friend 2

You came in a dream, yesterday —
The first day we met you showed me
your dark workroom off the kitchen,
your books, your notebooks.

Reading our last, knowing-last letters —
the years of our friendship
reading our poems to each other,
I would start breathing again.

Yesterday, in the afternoon,
more than a year since you died,
some words came into the air.
I looked away a second,
and they were gone, six lines,
just passing through.

for Adrienne Rich

--Jean Valentine