“Suddenly there’s Poughkeepsie”

Suddenly there’s Poughkeepsie

what a hard time
the Hudson River has had
trying to get to the sea
it seemed easy enough to
rise out of Tear of
the Cloud and tumble
and jumps   draining
a swamp here and and other smaller
longings for the wide
except for its spelling
ocean sixty miles away is
that town every day
and twice a day in fact
drowning the Hudson River
it is the moon’s tidal
down    dignified
become our Lordly Hudson
hardly flowing
now in a poem by the poet
Paul Goodman  be quiet heart
home home
then the sea.

– Grace Paley