Daniel Nathan Terry
What It Takes
What it takes each morning is time to remind myself
of all that is good despite all that is evil. Through your ugliness,
you are teaching me to love harder, deeper,
more possessively, all that is beautiful. What it takes
to fight you is more than a phone call, an email,
a vote; it takes the pursuit of beauty, it takes eyes wide
open to Earth in all her vulnerable glory. What it takes
to survive you is the nearly impossible
camellia bloom unfurling in the winter wind,
its fragile petals trembling in the dawnlight. What it takes
to resist the great urge downward is the hummingbird
that remained in our garden through January,
that took its place amid what remained
of the red and white flowers and found sustenance
among the dying.
Daniel Nathan Terry is the author of three books of poetry: City of Starlings (Sibling Rivalry Press 2015); Waxwings (Lethe Press 2012); Capturing the Dead (NFSPS 2008), which won The Stevens Prize; and a chapbook, Days of Dark Miracles (Seven Kitchens Press 2011). His work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in numerous journals and anthologies, including Cimarron Review, New South, and The Greensboro Review. He lives in Wilmington, North Carolina with his husband, painter and printmaker Benjamin Billingsley.
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