Remind me who I am

Stanley Kunitz won the Pulitzer Prize at the age of 63, became the United States Poet Laureate at 95 and published his last book in 2005 when he was 99 years old.  He died the following year at age 100.  His passion for language and his powers of observation were every bit as acute at the twilight of his career as they were at the dawn.

Kunitz was fortunate that his faculties never failed him.  I'm not sure to what degree his genetic makeup and health habits contributed to his vitality, but his work as both a poet and an avid gardener clearly sustained him.

"Touch Me" is the final poem in his Collected Poems.  With Valentine's Day coming up next Monday and spring right around the corner, today felt like the perfect time to share it.  If you read to the end, you'll understand why I titled this post "Remind me who I am."

The above video was filmed in 2002 at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.  Here's the text of the poem:

Touch Me

Summer is late, my heart.
Words plucked out of the air

some forty years ago

when I was wild with love

and torn almost in two

scatter like leaves this night

of whistling wind and rain.

It is my heart that's late,

it is my song that's flown.

Outdoors all afternoon

under a gunmetal sky

staking my garden down,

I kneeled to the crickets trilling

underfoot as if about

to burst from their crusty shells;

and like a child again

marveled to hear so clear

and brave a music pour

from such a small machine.

What makes the engine go?

Desire, desire, desire.

The longing for the dance

stirs in the buried life.

One season only,

and it's done.

So let the battered old willow

thrash against the windowpanes

and the house timbers creak.

Darling, do you remember

the man you married? Touch me,

remind me who I am.