This week’s poem, Mike Bove’s “In an Email from Kevin,” offers a brief but luminous meditation. I love this poem’s simple phrases and how they move – the short lines have the rhythm of how we breathe and reflect while walking. I also love how this piece reminds us that poetry is happening all around us, in forms both grand and common.

Bove is the author of two books of poems: “Big Little City” (2018) and “House Museum” (2021). His work has appeared in journals in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, and he was the winner of the 2021 Maine Postmark Poetry Contest. He is an associate professor of English at Southern Maine Community College and lives with his family in Portland, where he was born and raised.

In an Email from Kevin

By Mike Bove

I like walking

In places

where

I can see houses

and especially enjoy,

when passing by

at night,

the appearance of

lights.

Megan Grumbling is a poet and writer who lives in Portland. Deep Water: Maine Poems is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. “In an Email from Kevin” copyright © 2021 by Mike Bove, appears by permission of the author.