101 Poems, Number 60

Favorite Poems Throughout My Life

60: “April 5, 1974,” 1989 (in New and Collected Poems), by Richard Wilbur (1921–2017)

One of my favorites, Wilbur was—

No problem thinking of “because”:

He had such grace in all his verse—

A heart inside a satin purse.

In this one—such a simple scene—

But complex too (how poems mean).

Some lines about a thaw in spring

Transform to deal with such a thing

As how a human mind can change—

Ideas, thoughts—all rearrange

And help the thinker grow some more—

And that’s, of course, what thinking’s for!

Link to poem.