May 1st, 2026 - Mark J. Mitchell

On a Theme From D.H. Lawrence

A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time.
—D.H. Lawrence
Song of a Man Who Has Come Through

A wind passes your way like a called strike.
You think it clipped your hair, your neck. It stops,
just a breath. Grows slow, grows soft, then blows warm
as memory. Stand still. It makes your cap hop
on your head. It may kiss you, become new
as a sunrise service, empty as form.
Formless as the strike zone, playing a game
you don’t need to know. And you don’t want to—
for now. You might smell rosin or new rope
lilting around you. Or hear phantom names
riding this breeze like leaves off a rooftop.
Maybe it’s calling you—just you—back to life.
Or teasing you with the cruel gift of hope.

“Mark J. Mitchell has been a working poet for 50 years. His latest collection is Something To Be. A novel, A Book of Lost Songs was recently published by Histria Books. He’s fond of baseball, Louis Aragon, Dante, and his wife, activist Joan Juster. He lives in San Francisco where he points out pretty things.”

He can also be found here.