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# One Poem by Peter Gizzi
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/one-poem-by-peter-gizzi/
- Published: 2017-12-13T12:00:01.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:40:31.000Z
- Description: Our poetry editor, Wendy Xu, has selected one poem by Peter Gizzi for her monthly series that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers.
- Author: Wendy Xu
- Tags: Poetry, Hyperallergic Poetry, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:30(2016, 2017, part 3)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/12/robert-marshall.jpg)

Robert Marshall, “Car Window 30” (2017), UV curable ink on mirrored Dibond, 15 x 20 in (image courtesy the artist)

## That I Saw the Light on Nonotuck Avenue

That every musical note is a flame, native in its own tongue.

That between bread and ash there is fire.

That the day swells and crests.

That I found myself born into it with sirens and trucks going by  
out here in a poem.

That there are other things that go into poems like the pigeon,  
cobalt, dirty windows, sun.

That I have seen skin in marble, eye in stone.

That the information I carry is mostly bacterial.

That I am a host.

That the ghost of the text is unknown.

That I live near an Air Force base and the sound in the sky is death.

That sound like old poetry can kill us.

That there are small things in the poem: paper clips, gauze, tater  
tots, and knives.

That there can also be emptiness fanning out into breakfast rolls,  
macadam, stars.

That I am hungry.

That I seek knowledge of the ancient sycamore that also lives in  
the valley where I live.

That I call to it.

That there are airships overhead.

That I live alone in my head out here in a poem near a magical  
tree.

That I saw the light on Nonotuck Avenue and heard the cry of a  
dove recede into a rustle.

That its cry was quiet light falling into a coffin.

That it altered me.

That today the river is a camera obscura, bending trees.

That I sing this of metallic shimmer, sing the sky, the song, all of  
it and wonder if I am dying would you come back for me?

\* \* \*

[Peter Gizzi](http://www.petergizzi.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com) is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently, [*Archeophonics* ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0819576808/?tag=hyperallergic-20&ref=hyperallergic.com)(finalist for the 2016 National Book Award)*,* [*In Defense of Nothing: Selected Poems 1987-2011*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/081957564X/?tag=hyperallergic-20&ref=hyperallergic.com)*,* and[ *Threshold Songs*](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0819573477/?tag=hyperallergic-20&ref=hyperallergic.com)*.* Just out from The Brother in Elysium is a small book entitled, *New Poems.* For more info visit petergizzi.org.

*Readers are encouraged to submit 3–5 poems as a PDF to Wendy Xu for consideration at* [*poetry@hyperallergic.com.*](mailto:poetry@hyperallergic.com)