American Life in Poetry: ‘My Mother’s Music’ by Emilie Buchwald

Emilie Buchwald was the co-publisher and founding editor of Milkweed Editions in Minneapolis going on 40 years ago, and that press grew up to become one of the finest literary publishers in our country. Today she edits children’s books at Gryphon Press, which she also founded. Here’s a lovely remembrance from her new book, “The Moment’s Only Moment,” from Nodin Press.

My Mother’s Music

In the evenings of my childhood,

when I went to bed,

music washed into the cove of my room,

my door open to a slice of light.

I felt a melancholy I couldn’t have named,

a longing for what I couldn’t yet have said

or understood but still

knew was longing,

knew was sadness

untouched by time.

Sometimes

the music was a rippling stream

of clear water rushing

over a bed of river stones

caught in sunlight.

And many nights

I crept from bed

to watch her

swaying where she sat

overtaken by the tide,

her arms rowing the music

out of the piano.

Poem copyright 2016 by Emilie Buchwald from “The Moment’s Only Moment” (Nodin Press, 2016), and reprinted by permission of the author and publisher. American Life in Poetry is supported by the Poetry Foundation and the English department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We do not accept unsolicited submissions.