Only on This Planet

John Graber

John Graber grew up in western Kansas and received degrees from St. Olaf College and the Iowa Writers Workshop. He taught grade school, high school, and college students for six years at Holden Village in the North Cascades. Since 1978, he has lived in Stockholm, Wisconsin, a village on the Mississippi where he and his wife, Elise, enjoyed raising their three children. Although bipolar disorder has complicated his teaching, editing, and writing, he has had more than fifty poems published in a variety of magazines. Included among them are The American Poetry Review, The Christian Century, The Great River Review, Free Verse, and The American Review. An earlier collection of poetry, Walking Home, is available from Pudding House Publications.

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Excerpt:

In My Hands

The town across the lake
and all its lights
are in my hands.

The splash of stars
and the hidden moon
revolve here in my hands.

The wind’s
legions of leaves
and all their spring trees
sway together in my hands.

The sight of you standing-
the children in your eyes,

the thought of your turning,
the breath of your touching

is all so much bigger
than anything
in my hands.