Who
Was the man
By the fire
In the house
By the bridge
By the sea
That lapped
The windows
In a storm
In the fall
Of my traveling
Year
He filled
The pail
With coal
He too
Had traveled
The world
Though his trip
I knew
Could not end
He whispered
To a woman
By the fire
As the sea
Lashed the windows
In the storm
As he filled
His spade
With fire
DAN O’BRIEN’s third collection of poetry, New Life, will be published by CB Editions in London in 2015. His second collection, _Scarsdale, was published by CB Editions in 2014, and in the US by Measure Press in 2015. War Reporter, his debut collection, was published in 2013 by CB Editions, and by Hanging Loose Press in the US. War Reporter received the 2013 Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize and was shortlisted for the 2013 Forward Foundation’s Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection, both in the UK. O’Brien’s poems have appeared internationally in journals, magazines, and newspapers including 32 Poems, 5 AM, 10Tal, Ambit, Bare Fiction, Birmingham Poetry Review, Cold Mountain Review, and Crab Orchard Review.