Easy: Poems [Paperback]

A “delightful” (Poetry), celebratory volume of late-life poems from the award-winning octogenarian Marie Ponsot.

“Few poets are as infectiously joyful to read as Marie Ponsot . . . a woman whose cliché- bashing wit and experience only seem to make her fresh, almost childlike wonderment in the world around her . . . that much more arresting.”

—Vogue

Marie Ponsot is the author of six collections of poetry. Professor Emerita of English at Queens College, CUNY, she teaches at the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y and at the New School in Manhattan. Her awards include the Phi Beta Kappa Medal, the Shaughnessy Prize of the Modern Language Association, and the Poetry Society of America’s Frost Medal for lifetime achievement. She lives in New York City.THIS BRIDGE, LIKE POETRY, IS VERTIGO


In a time of dearth bring forth number, weight, & measure.
—WILLIAM BLAKE


Describing the wind that drives it, cloud

rides between earth and space. Cloud

shields earth from sun-scorch. Cloud

bursts to cure earth’s thirst. Cloud

—airy, wet, photogenic—

is a bridge or go-between;

it does as it is done by.

It condenses. It evaporates.

It draws seas up, rains down.

I do love the drift of clouds.

Cloud-love is irresistible,

untypical, uninfinite.


Deep above the linear city this morning

the cloud’s soft bulk is almost unmoving.

The winds it rides are thin;

it makes them visible.

As sun hits it olĵ