Summer Poetry Pop-Up: Terence Winch

Ghost Bottle

You waited for me as long as you could

that night when I went out to play a gig

It was cold in the back of the car

I clenched my jaw till my teeth hurt

I was in the dark for so long my eyes

have never adjusted to the light

Someday humans will be able to remember

everything but not recognize the present

You waited for me singing your exit

in a rattle that shook through the house

After you were gone I made everything

into a prayer against everything divine

Then they put me in a bottle and tossed me

in the sea floating on the waves of my grief

 

                                                                     --Terence Winch

[from The Known Universe, Hanging Loose Press, 2018]

Terence Winch is the author of eight poetry collections: The Known Universe, This Way Out, Lit from Below, Falling out of Bed in a Room with No Floor, Boy Drinkers, The Drift of  Things, The Great Indoors [Columbia Book Award winner], and Irish Musicians/American Friends [American Book Award winner]. He has also written two story collections, Contenders and That Special Place: New World Irish Stories, which draws on his experiences as a founding member of the original Celtic Thunder, the acclaimed Irish band. His work is included in more than 40 anthologies, among them the Oxford Book of American Poetry, Poetry 180, and 5 editions of  Best American Poetry, and has been featured on “The Writer’s Almanac” and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Winch is the recipient of an NEA Fellowship in poetry and a Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative Writing, among other honors.