after Czeslaw Milosz

Bright, beautiful, warm, and free, your body
as if from the bottom of a lake, rises and floats, a golden lure
glinting on the surface of my mind, among feathers.

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This poem is part of a nineteen poem series titled "The World" after Czeslaw Milosz's 1943 series "The World." I began responding to Milosz's series, using his titles as prompts, when I quit smoking in November of 2009—it was a good distraction/project for me at the time. I made a big mess of the Milosz poems, then put his series away and revised my versions until they became their own animals. At least, I hope, the best ones became their own animals.