Reed
Updated: Sep 19
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 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
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.