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In this exquisite third book, What I Got For a Dollar, Somerville poet Bert Stern grapples with the elemental and the extraordinary, looking back on the length of his journey and finding realms of possibility, powerful proof of a life well lived. Moments of divine recognition pervade these poems – their rough terrains, their changing atmospheres and stunning grace – culminating in a profound sense of gratitude for the tactile world. Here is a poet writing at the height of his powers.

ON THE AUSABLE

Bert Stern

Windy rush of river after rain.

I wobble down the rough path

of the bank, propped by love

and a broken stick, eyes

agog with dappled water.

On the cobbled beach

totter over stones,

breathe beginnings in:

sun, stone, water, rock.

ADIRONDACK EVENING

Watching you from

the second floor of the darkening house

as you cross the meadow and disappear

into the woods at evening,

for a moment I think

I am watching myself vanish into the woods,

but no, I am watching us both

just when our absence from meadow

and woods leaves behind a whisper

like a puff of pollen in the wind

that dissipates on grass and evening peepers

and washes away in rain

and leaves aches in the ether

for the meadow you walked across,

the woods you entered,

my ache for you and yours for me.

— Bert Stern

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