Reed

Harry Newman

from Wonders of the World

what brought you to me  

what fine soft wind  

more like a breath  

led you this way  

what turn of the earth  

what peculiar gravity  

set you in motion  

what brought you to me  

what gentle current  

of a cool clear stream  

carried you in this direction  

through soil over stones  

across valleys plains  

past every obstacle  

to the shore  

the marsh lands  

where I was a reed  

but you saw a pipe  

open to song a stylus  

waiting for words 

a basket like two palms  

curved together and  

large enough to take us  

further on your journey 

Image © Mikhail

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Harry Newman’s poems have appeared in Salmagundi, Rattle, Ecotone, Chautauqua, Warscapes, among many other print and online journals over the past 20 years. His first collection, Cliff Dwellers—an interweaving of political and personal poetry on state violence and militarism and their consequences on our lives—will be published by Silverfish Review Press Spring 2026. He is also the author of several plays and translations (from German), which have been performed in theaters around the U.S. and in Europe.

harrynewman.com