Standing Still While Traffic Moved About Me

Robert Hutchinson

1971

STANDING STILL WHILE TRAFFIC MOVED ABOUT ME
Where Homer sat wandless and Moses brought
No homeward Ithacan wheel,
I stayed, as was right, on my personal island
(The plum's invasions–
October's massed grays–)
And found a poem others had missed
Flopping wildly on the cement.
–Robert Hutchinson

"When poetry can get as close to a reader as love does–secret love–forbidden love–then it has succeeded. And this poetry does."
–May Swenson

"...bewitching and bewitched....I truly love it...."
–Mark Van Doren