Welcome back to the Daily Poem. I'm David Kern, and today is Wednesday, July 8th, 2020.

The poem that I'm going to read today is by an American poet named Stanley Kunitz, who lived from 1905 to 2006.

Later this month, on July 29th, will be the 115th anniversary of his birthday.

He would have been 115 on that day.

Amazingly, he lived to be 100 years old, and so he had a rich, long life.

He was appointed a Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress twice, first in 1974, and then again in 2000.

He is certainly one of the key figures of American poetry of the 20th century. of Congress twice, first in 1974, and then again in 2000.

He is certainly one of the key figures of American poetry of the 20th century.

And I'm going to be reading a couple poems to you this month, one today, and then one again later this month.

And the poem that I'm going to be reading to you today is called The Long Boat.

It goes like this. When his boat snapped loose from its mooring

under the screeking of the gulls, he tried at first to wave to his dear ones on shore. But in the

rolling fog they had already lost their faces.

Too tired even to choose between jumping and calling, somehow he felt absolved and free of

his burdens.

Those mottoes stamped on his name tag.

Conscience, ambition, and all that caring. He was content to lie down

with the family ghosts in the slop of his cradle, buffeted by the storm, endlessly drifting.

Peace, peace to be rocked by the infinite.

As if it didn't matter which way it was home,

as if he didn't know he loved the earth so much he wanted to stay forever.

If you're interested, you can Google this poem and you can find Kuhnit's reading it himself on NPR.

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