Here at Mount Airy | Michael S. Glaser

Feb 7, 20231 min read

February's monthly poem for IPM members and supporting donors is from

Michael S. Glaser.

These poems are posted monthly and shared first with our donors as a thank you for their support. We invite you to join in this support of the Poetic Medicine community by donating through one of the links above.

A photo of a mountain covered in trees. There are a couple rock out croppings visible. The sky is a pale blue with some light, fluffy clouds in the distance, and there are a couple other mountains way off in the distance on the left of the mountain in focus. There is a poem by Michael S. Glaser titled "Here at Mount Airy" that reads: "Here, in the interval between not knowing and knowing,/here in the moment (always in the moment) of in-between//when living in the present seems more difficult/than the anxious waiting for the not-yet-arrived future//I realize again how each moment offers a choice/between anxiety or a clean in-breath of presence//and how, in this moment, at Mount Airy,/surrounded by bird song, blue sky, and spring green//I am reminded that I stopped here on my way home/from the cancer center's bone scan machine//to experience the stillness, the soft breeze, the in-breath/of light that has been, that is, that will be//Here now, always now//exhale."

If a line or phrase resonates with you, we invite you to use it as a starting point to create your own poem.

We welcome you to share your poem with the IPM community here: A Poetry Commons.

Michael S. Glaser is an American poet and educator who served as Poet Laureate of Maryland from 2004 to 2009. He is also an advocate for women's rights and health, affordable housing, fatherhood, and writing and arts education in public schools. Beginning in 1970, he taught English and Creative Writing at St. Mary’s College of Maryland where he served as a faculty member and administrator for 50 years. He and Kevin Young edited The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton – who was a colleague of Michael’s for 15 years. Michael also served on the Board of Kirkridge Retreat Center, and The Maryland Humanities Council. In 2015 Michael gathered and edited the poems of The Only Gift to Bring by John Fox. He and John are long-time friends; poets especially interested in the healing place of poetry in our world.

Here at Mount Airy | Michael S. Glaser

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